I don’t understand why I’ve put a stone on!

Has anyone ever explained the impact of the change in hormones on your weight during perimenopause/menopause? There are many factors to look at here.

So what does “taking responsibility” look like to you? How have you changed your Wright gain position? What has worked?

Yes, I think some people think their genetics makes them morally superior. Yet if you tell the sane women you are eating 1000 calories a day they are horrified. I think that kind of education is really important- I would like menopause education rolled out across all work places.

I absolutely agree that there needs to be more help around perimenopause, I think there needs to be more education and research into what happens and how to improve symptoms.

The guidelines say that if you have symptoms you can be prescribed HRT over 45. No blood tests are required, it is symptom led.

Under 45 they will do several blood tests.

I think people are not reading the thread. There have already been links posted about how hormones impact weight. I explained the role of cortisol in weight gain. Yet people are still questioning despite having a total lack of knowledge. It is not every woman who gains weight, so those who don't are lucky. But it seems a lot of people who haven't gained in menopause think those of us who have are making it up.

The solution to weight gain for me was a strict 1000 calorie diet. Every day for a year, no exceptions. I was gaining weight when I was eating 1500 calories because my metabolism had changed.

Problem is as you can see from this thread there is also a mantra around saying it’s peri menopause but no real solutions offered with that either. I don’t think women know what to do with the label that is given to them of peri menopause, what does it really mean in terms of the next steps? We need to ask more questions not just accept a label and that we are doomed

I’m just being honest, I’m not self flagulating. Taking personal responsibility and not saying it’s not my fault and I can’t help it is not self flagulation. But if it makes you feel better to feel the majority of women get fat for reasons outwith their control, then crack on with that though.

I will however be honest. And I will own it. Because that’s how you solve it.

Weight loss jabs will never be just as you’re menopausal. Well they might in 50 years. Right now they aren’t even really approved on the nhs, other than for over 40 bmi via weight loss clinics. Which have an eight month waiting list and you need to go do the tiers and try everything else first. Even then it’s not guaranteed.

so they will address the overweight first with health issues that’s the next be]ig thing.. Blood prssure, cholesterol, sleep apnea , athritis, joint issues, mobility issues etc. women gaining weight in meno is a long long way down the list, you will be decades waiting.

its as far away from the next big thing as it gets.

I can’t possibly know - you do realise life is complicated - hormones have a wide effect, they can also affect kow people deal with things like past trauma, adhd )esp undiagnosed) perimenopause sees a change in Esterogen which often affects sleep which in turn affects cortisol and energy levels. So both conplex and linked to hormones.

Keep up with the self flagation if that’s your thing, but don’t try and drag along everyone else.

Which is it, hormones or complex issues. So what percentage of women do you think are like me, simply someone who ate too much and moved too little. As the way you’re posting you’d think I was a rarity and us women gaining weight is never down to us.

I think this is really important- luckily, and I think this is as a result of weight loss joss jabs the medical profession (at least some of them) are moving away from the idea it can all be solved by eating less, run around more mantra so beloved of the diet and fitness industry.

I think looking at medications for those in perimenopause, might be the next big thing. If we can keep weight down and bone density up that’s surely got to be better news for an increasingly aging population that will be retiring a lot later

Maybe the question needs to be: what is solution or treatment that helps if you might be peri menopausal. I still don’t know what this might be despite all the threads about it. If I am gaining weight and might be peri and to go to the GP and the bloods don’t really show anything what happens next? What do you do? Do some GP’s give out oestrogen with normal bloods just on symptoms and some don’t?

My question exactly. I have had all the symptoms of a hormonal disorder but no doctor can find the cause of a hormonal problem. So what are women going to be given to help them? Nothing most likely, many peri women go for tests, all come back fairly normal and not much can be done in terms of medical management, so you have to turn to lifestyle management, no one on this thread has given a clear example of what medical intervention helped them with peri menopause symptoms such as weight gain. I’m not on HRT as I don’t qualify for it at the moment and it wouldn’t help me, but it did help me to change my lifestyle

that is exactly what is insinuated though. And to suddenly start gaining weight around the time many women start peri menopause when nothing else has changed is very likely to do with hormones (or potentially other illnesses) otherwise that person would have gained weight before. Being overweight is often a result of very complex issues.

no One used those controversial words but you. And yes, often it is about eating too much and moving too little and I say that as a fat menopausal woman. Not everything is about our hormones and eating too much and moving too little doesn’t make us greedy or lazy. Keep the judgy words to yourself.

Because it is true- the change in hormones affects your metabolism. I know there’s a certain group who don’t like to believe it but often being overweight isn’t about being greedy or lazy.

Christ, you are vile.

This happened to me last year - a random addition of 2kg. Sadly I've had to accept that, if I want to stay slim, I can't eat breakfast or drink wine. It sucks, but there you go.

So if there is no drop in hormone level how are you suffering from a condition that is caused by a drop in hormone levels? And if hormones are normal then how would HRT help?

I don’t know about anyone else but I am 44 and have no womb now but I still have ovaries.

Absolutely not one blood test in the past 10 years shows up any hormonal issues, despite ending up needing a hysterectomy due to very very large fibroids and undergoing all manner of investigations, there is no hormonal issue ever identified. I must have grown the fibroids from somewhere though right? Too much oestrogen? Not on a test. Too little progesterone? Not on a test. PCOS? Not on any tests. We are misunderstood and under studied as women and often the tests show nothing, so nothing is ever done to help you.

You would think I might be peri now? Blood tests all normal.

I was too tired and stressed and overweight due to having a busy lifestyle, stressful job, kids, eating badly, not enough exercise, drinking too much. I addressed lots of those things and my life and health did improve. There has been no pill or patch that has helped me so far. Not having the womb helps but that isn’t my ovaries so they are still going. I am hoping when I do go into menopause I have set a good basis of a lifestyle to see me through with the help of HRT but I think women do leave it a little too late then find it all comes at once and it’s really hard to manage and unpick.

It is not remotely helpful to the op to tell her it’s peri and likely out of her control.

Nobody's saying that though - they're saying that peri could well be a possibility at 39 (many women are in it for a decade before they reach menopause) and that there are medications that can help her if that happens to be the case.

There's actually increasing research which shows many women are in perimenopause well before they realise - it also doesn't take much of a shift in your hormones for you to struggle - combine that with the fact that many people get increasingly sedentary with busy jobs and young children and it's very easy to see how you can put on a stone in 8 weeks.

I put on a stone at around 39-40, didn't eat more or move less (in fact, I increased my cardio to try and lose it, didn't work!). Your metabolism slows down as you get older and raised cortisol can make you hold on to weight as well.
As others have said, speak to your GP but if they don't find anything wrong look into cortisol and perimenopause as well as reducing carbs.

If you're really not eating more, maybe you should take a pregnancy test? I thought some women still got bleeding in pregnancy or complications with pregnancy.

It’s winter, it’s cold and wet we spend less time outside, winter weight gain is common as we move around a lot less. The nights are darker we stay indoors a lot more. The shops are selling us high calorie foods from 1st October using their very clever psychology

Hormones don’t help in this period of life but I don’t think they mean all is lost and there is no hope.

I don’t think the cortisol weight gain theory has been proven it’s still a theory and the links are tenuous. It’s been a good way of people shilling services to people using the word cortisol though. Stress can lead you to eat more, and being overweight and make you stressed out. It is chicken and egg, are you stressed therefore eating more and have more cortisol or did the cortisol come out of nowhere to make you gain weight when you were not overweight to start with? And one way to reduce cortisol/ stress is to go for a walk, get exercise and make lifestyle changes to reduce your stress levels.

The facts remain, statistically proven. And easily googleable. The vast majority of women go through peri in their mid forties on. The vast majority of women going through peri do not have debilitating symptoms like they can a stone in 8 weeks. Put both together for this 39 year old woman and the odds of this being peri are minuscule. It doesn’t mean it can’t be, but posters hysterically going it is peri are overwhelmingly likely to be wrong. On top of this scientifally proven women entering peri do not need 200 calories a day less. Their metabolism doesn’t suddenly drop like this. It is a ludicrous suggestion and the science is also available to google.

the point being made is people are going too far attributing every single thing a woman has over the age of 35 to be peri or meno. Even in meno it’s something like only 5 percent of women have severe symptoms. And gaining a stone in a few weeks would be severe.

It is not remotely helpful to the op to tell her it’s peri and likely out of her control. When it’s is possibly her thyroid or she is quite simply eating and drinking more and moving less.