Menopause and Weight Gain

Many women find it hard to control their weight during menopause but most put this down to poor diet or lack of exercise.

In fact, the hormonal changes that menopause brings are an important factor in weight gain and can make losing weight more difficult.

As we start the change, production of our body’s two major hormones, oestrogen and progesterone, starts to fall. This in itself is entirely natural.

However in Western societies, a combination of factors including extended use of birth control, processed foods and environmental toxins, cause progesterone levels to drop much faster than in societies where these factors are not present. The result is a condition called oestrogen dominance.

Oestrogen dominance is an imbalance between oestrogen and progesterone levels whereby, instead of the two hormones being relatively equal to each other, the ratio of oestrogen is elevated.

This can occur even with low oestrogen levels, and the symptoms are easily recognised: hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings etc. Less well known is that oestrogen, when unchecked by progesterone, interferes with thyroid function, reducing its effectiveness.

This can lead to increased conversion of carbohydrate into fat, as well as sugar cravings. The result is that the weight piles on much easier and slimming down is much harder.

An over abundance of oestrogen can also decrease natural lipolysis in adipose tissue (fat tissue) through the oestrogen receptor ER-alpha. In other words, oestrogen dominance may prevent the natural breakdown of fat in the body. This effect is especially true for abdominal fat.

The cruel irony of increased weight gain due to oestrogen dominance is that women continue to produce oestrogen in the fatty tissue in the belly, abdomen and thighs, making the whole situation worse.

“There are no doubt good evolutionary reasons for some of oestrogen’s seemingly negative actions on the body such as water retention and weight gain. If we think of oestrogen in terms of procreation and survival of the fetus, it would seem advantageous to the baby for the expectant mother, in times of famine, to store body fat.” - Dr John Lee MD - What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About The Menopause

Supplementing with natural progesterone products like Wellsprings Serenity can help restore hormonal balance and in doing so make weight control throughout menopause much easier to manage. We have also formulated a natural weight control capsule, optimised for the menopause.