As new research shines a light on the metabolic potential of the years preceding your final period, WH reports on how to future-proof your body – for menopause and beyond
Spare a thought for the perimenopause. While the menopause has been enjoying the kind of publicity a reality TV star would sell a kidney for, the years that lead up to your final period remain as hush-hush as the number on your payslip and the political party you vote for. But a recent study represents a piece of positive PR for a life stage that’s not yet recognised by most spellcheckers, not to mention those enduring it.
The study, published in Menopause, looked at three groups of active women, each at a different hormonal stage: pre, peri and postmenopausal. Researchers tasked each group with performing a set number of exercise hours before evaluating metrics such as body composition, resting metabolic rate and fat distribution. Their conclusion? The greatest changes in the first two factors happened in the perimenopausal years. But researchers also pointed out that by engaging in activities that help maintain muscle mass and burn fat, you can future-proof your body against some of the physiological consequences perimenopause delivers. This opportunity is thought to be so significant, it’s been dubbed the ‘perimenopause power window’. So it’s with your metabolic future in mind that we ask: are you optimising yours?
METABOLIC STATE
If you count yourself among those unfamiliar with this life stage that affects every woman and person assigned female at birth, allow us a brief explainer.
‘Perimenopause is the time in which anovulatory cycles – when ovulation doesn’t occur – happen with increasing frequency, so the body doesn’t produce progesterone and the ovaries stop working,’ explains Stacy Sims, an exercise physiologist who counts perimenopausal women among her clients. This transition to your last menstrual period is, on average, four years, but can be anywhere between a few months and a decade. With the average age of menopause – defined as one year after your final period – now 51, the majority of women will experience perimenopause in their forties, but around one in 100 experience it before 40, and some in their twenties and thirties. ‘With the change in the ratio of oestrogen to progesterone, every system of the body starts to be affected,’ adds Dr Sims, explaining why symptoms encompass everything from low mood and brain fog to aching joints and muscles.
Going back to the study, while researchers observed considerable differences between the pre, peri and postmenopausal groups, many of the physical changes actually happened during the perimenopausal years. Chief among them were higher levels of fat in the android (or stomach) regio
