Understanding the Transition into Menopause…And All That Comes with It

At this time, women tend to start suffering from many “common” symptoms, including:

Increase belly fat

Loss of collagen

Atrophy

Hot flashes

Night sweats

Vaginal dryness

Bone loss

Sleep problems

Decreased tolerance to stress

Facial hair

These, of course, wind up feeling like a “given” of getting older and entering this life transition. But
they shouldn’t be, and they’re certainly not natural or unavoidable symptoms. Instead, these symptoms come about because something – usually the adrenals – in your body isn’t working as it should. Here’s what happens: when a woman goes into menopause, her adrenals take over and start producing the hormones that were previously produced by the ovaries.

To get that to happen, the hypothalamus sends out a signal to the adrenals to release the
hormones. If all goes well, they do release and there isn’t a symptom in sight. The problem begins to arise when the adrenals are fatigued. They don’t answer the hypothalamus’ call, and this leads to a host of issues.

Let’s discuss how this relates specifically to menopausal weight gain.

What Causes Menopausal Weight Gain: Estrogen Dominance
Now, both estrogen and progesterone decrease during menopause. That said, progesterone levels
drop more, which means that the ratio of estrogen becomes much higher than progesterone as
women enter the transition. This leaves many menopausal women in a state of estrogen dominance.
With estrogen dominance, women experience:

Anxiety and irritability

Breast tenderness

Weepiness and depression

Cravings

Joint pain

Acne and cystic acne

Belly fat and weight gain in the hips, thighs, and stomach

Low libido

Fibroids

Cancer

Endometriosis

What Causes Estrogen Dominance?

In short, this also goes back to the weak adrenals. See, when a healthy woman enters perimenopause and menopause, the adrenal glands – located on top of the kidneys – take over for these hormonal changes in the ovaries. They actually begin producing the estrogen and progesterone that is no longer created by the ovaries.

The problem, though, is when those adrenals are weak and when they can’t do that job. They don’t
produce the progesterone that is needed to balance this estrogen dominance, and the little bit of
progesterone that the body does still produce is actually converted to cortisol, the stress hormone.
Why? Well, the adrenals main function is to combat stress. So, if they’re not functioning at 100%
theyll use all the power they have to do only that. Which means they’ll rob the progesterone and
turn it into cortisol.

This further exacerbates the estrogen dominance and forces other parts of the body to be depleted
What’s more – your own fat makes estrogen and estrogen make fat. So the more fat you have, the
more estrogen you’re going to create. The more estrogen you create, the more fat you’ll have. Now, “estrogen” is really three hormones: estradiol, estrone, and estriol. Estriol, to give some good
news, is actually thought to be an anti-cancer hormone. It keeps estradiol, which is cancer causing,
from becoming too high.
Estrone is the type of estrogen that occurs after menopause, and it’s made from androgens or
testosterone. How do women get that testosterone in their bodies? Through insulin. So any woman
that has a problem with insulin resistance will be producing that androgen, and that will lead to this
estrogen dominance.

Estrogen is coming from a lot of places:

Your own fat

Hormones

Insulin

Synthetic medication

Hormones in animal products

Xenoestrogens

GMO foods like soy, corn, and beets.

All that leads to estrogen dominance. And estrogen dominance leads to weight gain.

Estrogen Dominance Triggers Cortisol
That estrogen dominance will trigger another hormone in the brain – more specifically the
hypothalamus – called CRH (short for corticotropin-releasing hormone). It’s basically a hormone that
communicates to the pituitary gland – and to a pituitary hormone called ACTH – which then talks to
the adrenals.
Sounds complicated, I know, but stick with me here.
This ultimately all means that when you have higher amounts of estrogen, it will trigger more
cortisol. Cortisol is the main hormone that creates a weight gain problem. Your own fat – if you
have too much fat – it can also make cortisol just like it makes estrogen.

This ultimately means that when you have higher amounts of estrogen, it will trigger more cortisol. Cortisol is the main hormone that creates a weight gain problem. Your own fat – if you have too much fat – can also make cortisol just like it makes estrogen. So, again, it’s a self-perpetuating cycle that makes weight loss impossible.

The Big Weight Gain Culprit: Cortisol
Now here’s the thing: cortisol isn’t always bad. In fact, when it’s at the right levels, cortisol can help:

Manage how your body uses carbs, fats, and protein

Regulate blood pressure

Keep inflammation down

Control your sleep/wake cycle

Boost energy so you can handle stress.

It also, of course, is in charge of the “fight or flight” response, which is a very necessary and useful human reaction.
Instead, the problem is excess cortisol. Excess cortisol is very catabolic, meaning that it breaks down muscle tissue and it’s very destructive to your muscles and your body composition.
Ultimately, it actually turns muscle tissue into glucose or sugar. That, in turn, is converted through insulin into fat cells.

That’s why many women that go through menopause end up with atrophy, loss of muscle mass,
and increased body fat. Their muscle is quite literally being broken down and converted into sugar.
Yet, in their minds, they think this is all just excess fat. I can’t maintain a healthy weight in midlife. I
have to make peace with menopausal weight gain. That’s just not true: the fact is that it’s a complex
chemical reaction going on in their bodies that is leading to atrophy and preventing successful weight loss.

Cortisol Causes Menopausal Atrophy
When we’re talking about atrophy, we’re not simply talking about weak muscles or under-exercised
muscles. Instead, we’re talking about muscles wasting away in the exact same way that they would
on someone that’s suffering from some form of paralysis. So it almost goes without saying that age-related atrophy is not a little thing. It’s actually a major problem that can ultimately be symptomatically similar to osteoporosis, where you’re actually having thinning of the bones and you’re actually losing muscle fiber.

Three things cause atrophy in a menopausal woman:

Cortisol – The adrenal stress hormone. This is possibly triggered by stress without sleep

Inactivity – Say you haven’t worked out for 30 years. It might take some months to get that back.

Insulin resistance – Your cells have insulin resistance, meaning that they won’t let the insulin
connect anymore. Well, insulin controls the protein in the cell, so if you’re pre-diabetic or
diabetic, and you can’t allow the insulin to go in there, that could be the reason why you’re not
improving your atrophy.

The Solution: Lower Estrogen and Fix Atrophy
You have to reduce the amount of estrogen in your body as much as possible in order to correct the dominance and stop weight gain. You can do this by consuming:
• Organic vegetables
• Hormone-free meats and meats that are grass-fed or pasture raised
• Aromatase inhibitors: cruciferous vegetables, iodine (from sea kelp)
• Chaste tree/black cohosh

And adrenal support.

If you find yourself dealing with any of the above, I’m here to help. Please reach out to me.

Restoring Your Health Naturally,

Dr. Katie Thompson, DC, MSTN