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Menopause Triggers Abrupt Shifts in Body Systems, Study Finds

7:04 PM ETConfirmed

Science Desk

In Short: According to the research, the loss of sex hormones triggers an abrupt, systemic biological shift that not only impacts a woman’s reproductive system but also alters a woman’s blood chemistry, lipid levels, liver and kidney function, as well as bone health.

A new study published in Nature Medicine has revealed that menopause triggers abrupt changes in bone density, liver function, and blood fats, challenging previous assumptions about the gradual nature of this transition.

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel analyzed more than 300 million lab tests from over one million women, finding that 52 out of 90 tests showed a statistically significant and sudden change with menopause.

The study, which used a mathematical approach to align large-scale data at the final menstrual period, demonstrated that menopause brings abrupt, step-like changes across nearly every body system rather than a gentle decline.

According to the research, the loss of sex hormones triggers an abrupt, systemic biological shift that not only impacts a woman’s reproductive system but also alters a woman’s blood chemistry, lipid levels, liver and kidney function, as well as bone health.

The findings suggest that menopause is a major metabolic pivot point, frequently causing an abrupt spike in cholesterol and shifts in blood fats. The decrease in estrogen levels will trigger an increase in LDL levels in the blood and VLDL, which can increase triglycerides.

This study validates what clinicians have observed clinically: the cardiovascular and metabolic rulebook completely changes for women post-menopause, requiring proactive screening and lifestyle adjustments.

Researchers found that menopause triggers sudden shifts in bone density, liver function, and blood fats, challenging previous assumptions. The study, published in Nature Medicine, analyzed more than 300 million laboratory tests from more than 1 million women in the United States and Israel.

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.

In a separate development, a study published in PsycEXTRA Dataset in 1989 found that the 'Eliza' program helped students grasp therapy concepts.

The paper 'Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause show shared and distinct structural changes across the lifespan' was published in Nature Communications in 2026.

Public health researchers from Flinders University in Australia analyzed the tea- and coffee-drinking habits of roughly 9,700 US women aged over 65 years, as part of a broader osteoporosis study published in 2025.

Publishing their findings in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society, on 29 July 2026, researchers analyzed data from 107,836 postmenopausal women who enrolled in the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010, with a median follow-up period of 14.5 years.

What this adds

Background

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.
• "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.
• In the US dataset, for instance, 52 of 90 laboratory tests showed a statistically significant and sudden change with menopause.
• 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.
• The first brain scan study of its kind has now found that when the transition to menopause begins, the gradual loss of cortical volume that occurs with age inexplicably slows.
• This 2018 study found that gray matter loss to the hippocampus accelerates during the transition to menopause.
• The study found that earlier menopause was associated with faster cognitive decline, earlier Alzheimer's onset, and greater white matter hyperintensity accumulation.
• "Our study used a mathematical approach to align large-scale data at the final menstrual period, and therefore had more data and more advanced analysis than SWAN," Professor Alon said.
• Public health researchers from Flinders University in Australia analyzed the tea- and coffee-drinking habits of roughly 9,700 US women aged over 65 years, as part of a broader osteoporosis study published in 2025.
• Women who reach menopause before the age of 40 years face a meaningfully higher risk of developing high blood pressure compared with those who go through menopause after the age of 45 years, according to the results of a study.
• Publishing their findings in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society, on 29 July 2026, researchers analysed data from 107,836 postmenopausal women who enrolled in the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010, with a median follow-up period of 14.5 years.
• It is enough to know how menopause is distributed across the population: how many women experience it at 45, how many at 50, how many at 55.

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 shows that systemic changes experienced during menopause could be predicted by hormone changes much sooner than originally thought," says Schaumberg.
• "potentially alarming for women and implies a dramatic physical and mental decline, which this study does not demonstrate."
• That’s according to a new study that examined scans of 1,095 female brains across three life stages: first period, pregnancy and menopause.
• “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."
• "Menopause, in other words, is defined not by what changes," wrote van 't Hof, "but by what does not." During puberty and pregnancy, the female body experiences profound hormonal changes, and there is an especially steep rise in estrogens and progesterone, which can bind to receptors in the brain.
• 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.
• A 10-year study published in Nature Communications suggests that menopause may temporarily alter the brain's normal aging process, halting the gradual loss of cortical volume and gray matter.
• In women who went through natural menopause, menopause five years earlier was associated with roughly 15 percent greater WMH volume over the next 10 years.

Sources

• Nature Communicationslink
• ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporationlink
• Medical Dialogueslink
• Newswiselink
• Parrivalink
• Pharmaceutical Journallink
• ScienceAlertlink
• Technology Orglink
• Warpbeatlink
• Smithsonianmaglink
• Ynetnewslink
• ScienceAlertlink
• News-Medicallink
• Inewslink
• Science Newslink
• Warpbeatlink
• THE BLIP — video link