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Bones, Liver, And Blood Fats All Shift Abruptly at Menopause, Huge Study Finds
Confirmed
In Short: A new study published in Nature Medicine shows that menopause is not a gradual process but an abrupt physiological transition affecting multiple body systems.
Researchers from the US analyzed over 300 million lab tests from more than one million women, finding that 52 out of 90 laboratory tests showed a statistically significant and sudden change at menopause.
The study, which covers a wide range of tests including bone density, liver function, and blood fats, challenges the previous understanding that menopause is a gradual part of aging.
According to the study, menopause triggers systemic changes throughout the body, indicating that the transition is sharp and systemic.
"While prior longitudinal studies have established bone loss and specific hormonal surges, the scale of this study, covering 90 types of tests, demonstrates that this transition is sharp and systemic," the authors conclude.
The research also includes brain scans of 1,095 female brains across three life stages: first period, pregnancy, and menopause.
Interestingly, the study found that when the transition to menopause begins, the gradual loss of cortical volume that occurs with age inexplicably slows.
"This shows that systemic changes experienced during menopause could be predicted by hormone changes much sooner than originally thought," says Schaumberg.
However, the exact implications of these changes are still being explored.
"The exact implications are very difficult at this stage," van 't Hof said at the press conference.
The study also found that earlier menopause was associated with faster cognitive decline, earlier Alzheimer's onset, and greater white matter hyperintensity accumulation.
"White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are bright spots on brain scans that indicate damage to small blood vessels," the researchers noted.
"Menopause, in other words, is defined not by what changes, but by what does not," wrote van 't Hof.
What this adds
The study adds to the understanding of menopause as a systemic transition rather than a gradual process.
The study's findings could lead to new discoveries and better understanding of how menopause reshapes female physiology.
Background
In a separate development, a study published in PsycEXTRA Dataset in 1989 found that the 'Eliza' program helped students grasp therapy concepts.
A study published in Science Advances suggests that the genes of Jonathan, a 194-year-old giant tortoise, may provide clues about aging and potential ways to slow it down.
What's confirmed
- The paper "Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause show shared and distinct structural changes across the lifespan". was published in Nature Communications in 2026.
- “The exact implications are very difficult at this stage,” van ’t Hof said at the press conference.
- The pre- and post-menopause data represent only two time points per person following a long period called perimenopause, where “the dialogue between the ovary and the brain is already readjusting to the progressive decline of the ovarian reserve,” Susana Carmona, a neuroscientist at Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón in Spain who wasn’t involved in the study, tells Science News.
What's still developing
- "As we work to better understand how menopause reshapes female physiology, this research is likely to be the beginning of many new discoveries to come."
- “This study provides the first direct longitudinal comparison of brain structural changes across all three major female hormonal transitions,” Magdalena Martínez-García, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara who was not involved in the work, tells the outlet.
- "this interpretation should be treated as preliminary."
- New analyses to be presented at the Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy (Sept 28 – Oct 2) show that the new daily oral weight loss / type 2 diabetes medication orforglipron was associated with similar weight loss for women of different ages and at different life stages – premenopausal, experiencing menopause, or post-menopausal.
- Female participants with obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m²) or overweight (BMI ≥27 kg/m²) with at least one weight-related medical condition in ATTAIN-1 and -2 were analysed by menopausal status: pre-, peri-, or post-menopause, with the number of women in each category receiving orforglipron or placebo ranging from 142 to 225.
- Obesity, a chronic progressive disease, is exacerbated by oestrogen deficiency during menopause.
- Tuesday, September 29, 2026 · 12:09 AM ET In Short: Researchers from the US analyzed health data on 2,603 women, cross-referencing menopause age against markers for memory and brain function, as well as cases of Alzheimer's, for up to 18 years.
- Poorna Bell: I gradually started to forget things at an increasing and alarming rate That fear remained in the background until 18 months ago, when I started to experience the first flickers of peri-menopause in the form of brain fog.
- When I interviewed author and journalist Mariella Frostrup, who is also the Government’s Menopause Employment Ambassador, something she said stuck with me.
Sources
- Nature Communicationslink
- ScienceAlertlink
- Smithsonianmaglink
- ScienceAlertlink
- News-Medicallink
- Warpbeatlink
- Inewslink
- Science Newslink
- WarpBeat — background on Study finds simulation game helps students grasp complex health economics concepts link
- WarpBeat — background on Study finds 194-year-old tortoise is 'aging more slowly than you would expect' link