Any way you cut it, aging It’s not always a pleasant experience for women. We’re not even talking about menopause Single: Premenopausal periodThe lead up to it (no pun intended), can be tough too.
Classic symptoms such as Hot flashes and Night sweats This phase may be notorious (ever seen a viral video of steam rising from a woman’s head at an outdoor event?), but this stage of life can also bring other side effects, such as appetite changes, Rachel Pessah Pollack, MDsays an endocrinologist at NYU Langone Health and a clinical professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
So what does that mean? And what can you do about it? Here’s everything you need to know about this lesser-known side effect of perimenopause.
First, a refresher: What exactly is perimenopause?
If you swap the “r” with the first “e” and cut out the “i”, you basically arrive at the answer: before-menopause. More precisely, perimenopause is “the period of time before the end of the menstrual cycle.” Melissa Groves Azzaro, RDN (also known as a “hormonal nutritionist”), a practitioner who specializes in women’s health issues like PCOS and perimenopause, tells SELF. While menopause occurs around age 52 on average, your body sets the stage about 8 to 10 years before that as your ovaries begin producing less sex hormones. Estrogen And progesterone.
Premenopausal period symptoms It tends to appear in your mid-to-late 40s, but can appear as early as your mid-30s or as late as your mid-50s. At first, you may notice that your menstrual cycle has become shorter. For example, “If you’re typically a 28-day biker and regular at that point, you might notice them showing up every 26 days or every 25 days,” Azzaro says, for example. You can also try More pain or Heavier bleeding– It’s kind of like puberty in reverse.
Then, as perimenopause progresses, your cycles will definitely become irregular. “You’ll notice a 28-day cycle, followed by a 15-day cycle, followed by a 60-day cycle,” Azzaro says. Eventually, you’ll start Skip courses completely“So it may be 60 days or 90 days between periods.”
How does perimenopause affect your appetite?
Remember when we said that perimenopause is regulated by fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels? Since estrogen naturally acts as an appetite suppressant by inhibiting hunger signals, this specific hormonal shift is responsible for appetite changes during perimenopause, according to Dr. Pessah Pollack.
