A new study provides evidence of what many women have known all along: The transitional period known as menopause, which lasts up to 10 years before menopause, brings hormonal changes that can cause hot flashes and irregular periods but also adds to a woman’s stomach fat and loss Lean muscle mass.
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The A study published in March 2019 in the journal JCI Insightbased on data from SWAN دراسة Study (Studying Women’s Health Across the Nation). Started in 1994 and with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the SWAN Study research has been conducted at medical centers in several US cities and is a long-term research project to look at women’s physical and psychological health during middle age.
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Consider a woman’s body composition before and after menopause, across races
In the latest study, researchers looked at 18 years of data about a woman’s body composition from before the onset of perimenopause until after her last menstrual period. The study included 1,246 participants, of whom 356 were black, 153 were of Chinese heritage, 178 were of Japanese heritage, and 559 were white.
The mean age at the start of the study was 47.1 years, and the average age of the last period for participants was 52.2.
Researchers found that changes in body composition accelerated during perimenopause, with a two- to four-fold increase in fat and a loss of lean body mass. Those gains and losses stabilized when menopause began.
Body mass index (BMI) may become a less useful measure of health as women age
The researchers say the study shows that simply measuring your body mass index, a common assessment made using measurement of height and weight, doesn’t tell you what’s going “under the skin,” so as women get older BMI becomes a less reliable measure or indicator of serious health problems such as Diabetes or heart disease.
The gains and losses for both white and black women were similar, but they were different for the Japanese and Chinese participants. On average, the Chinese women in the study lost fat, gained lean body mass, and lost weight. Like the white participants, the Japanese women in the study lost lean body mass, but did not gain weight or fat mass.
Getting to the bottom of the body changes in perimenopause
Lead author of the study, Jill Grindel, MD, professor of medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of research at the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Center in Los Angeles, says previously no one had looked at how body composition changed before, during, and after menopause. . “There were some hints, but we didn’t know if, when and how much,” says Dr. Grindel. “We did the study to get to the bottom of it.”
Validation, but there are no magic solutions for women
Grindel says the findings are especially important because it’s often not a pill or other treatment that women look for during their transition, but an explanation of what’s happening to them. So, the most important thing we can say here is ‘No, you’re not crazy. Yes, your body gains more fat as you shed lean tissue,” she says, adding, “Information is power, and the results of the study will make women feel they are not victims of their own bodies.”
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Study tells women you’re not crazy
Owen Montgomery, MD, professor and chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Drexel University School of Medicine in Philadelphia calls the study “well done.” Dr. Montgomery says the study tells us that the weight gain women experience when they go through life changes is real. “This is very important, because a lot of my patients and many other perimenopause women exercise like crazy, eat healthy and see that their body fat is being redistributed,” Montgomery says. [anyway]And that’s driving them crazy.”
Montgomery says there’s an opportunity to share study results and let women know that the changes they see are normal, they can expect those changes, and that they’ll settle when the transition is finished.
“The differences in racial influences are very interesting and important to share with women from different backgrounds so they know what to expect,” Montgomery says.
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Loss of estrogen contributes to fat gain
Pamela Beck, MD, MPH, Estrogen has some powerful metabolic effects that help women reduce or maintain fat mass, says the Pew Foundation scientist in Nutrition and Metabolism, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland in College Park, and author of several books on women and weight, earlier in a woman’s life. she has. But as estrogen drops, women begin to lose control.
How to counter hormone-related weight gain
Strength training with weights is critical throughout a woman’s life. I’ve heard the saying “use it or lose it”. In this case, “it” is lean muscle mass. This training becomes even more important during perimenopause and as menopause continues in order to build and maintain muscle. Also, because body fat goes to the belly during this time, Dr. Beck says, the risk of metabolic disease increases. “If you don’t exercise, it’s very easy to gain weight.”
“Nothing in the study findings surprises me,” Peeke says. “It’s great that they did a study that proves it.”
