Gaining Weight In Menopause: It's Not Your Fault, It's Your Hormones

Maybe you’ve noticed that weight appears to accumulate around your stomach and remain, regardless of your healthful way of life. Even hours of work out in a fitness center generally have little benefit. Your bones, muscles and joints start to hurt. You experience a continuous reduction of vitality, experiencing exhaustion following your normal house work and daily tasks.

All of the sudden, you may notice the initial signs and symptoms of menopausal flashes - unanticipated heat spikes that leave you tossing and turning from night sweats.Once you begin to note the signals and symptoms of menopause, you may merely have accepted them as part of the growing old process. The fact remains, though, you’re not merely getting older - your bodily hormones have dropped out of balance. As you approach menopause, your body loses the capability to control essential hormones - such as estrogen, progesterone and even the male hormone testosterone - all needed for quality performance and optimal health in women.

Most women do not understand the entire process of menopause. Though the particular term “menopause” is often applied as a cover statement dealing with all the phases of being menopausal change, the menopause technically isn’t reached until periods have completely stopped for 12 months. The majority of women enter the menopause between the ages of 40 and fifty five normally, as their bodies approach the end of fertility and ovulation ceases.

Nevertheless, some females experience earlier menopause, as a result of surgical procedures such as complete hysterectomies and total oopherectomies (the removal of the ovaries). Additionally about 1% of females in the United States encounter earlier menopause at the age of 40 or under due to autoimmune problems, cancers treatments, thyroid issues, as well as other health reasons. When you enter menopause, your own ovaries create less and less estrogen. Since estrogen is definitely essential to quite a few life-sustaining functions, the entire body looks for additional areas to make necessary estrogens. In turns out, that your fat cells can manufacture estrogens. The women's body then begins to reprogram itself and convert calories into body fat to help improve estrogen levels.

The most unusual characteristic of this menopausal weight gain is the fact that the fat cells all around the stomach and abdomen are the cells that expand. A number of researchers think that hormone such as FSH and LH made in the pituitary gland stimulates the fat tissues to make more estrogens which results in more and more enlargement as the ovaries fail. The result is fat accumulation around the belly--not a favorite think to happen to most women.