Welcome to ‘Dear Laura’ - a monthly column where I fashion myself as an agony aunt and answer the questions that readers submit. If you’d like to send in a question for me to answer next month, you can submit it here.
I’m happy to answer Qs about anti-diet nutrition, developing a more peaceful relationship to food and weight-inclusive health, annoying diet trends and news stories, body image challenges, and, of course, challenges with feeding your kiddos. Please give as much detail as you’re comfortable with and let me know if you’d like me to include your name or keep it anon.
Today I'm answering two questions, one about what weight changes we should actually expect during peri(menopause) versus what diet culture we should expect (i.e. the fatphobic fearmongering over 'meno-belly').
Please remember that these answers are for educational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical or nutritional advice; please speak to your GP or a qualified nutrition professional if you need further support.
If you need 1-1 support, I have some space before the end of the year. I can support with a range of nutrition-related issues through a weight-inclusive and mindbody-affirming lens. I especially enjoy working with parents around their children's eating difficulties and how that might intersect with the parent's own relationship with food and their body. If you'd like to find out how I might be able to help, contact hello@laurathomasphd.co.uk to arrange a complimentary 15 minute call.
Dear Laura,
What is the actual normal expectation for weight gain/body changes for afab people in their forties and/or during perimenopause? There is soooo much panic about weight gain at this age and sometimes I've heard it with the implication that if you are gaining weight without an obvious explanation, there may be some concerning underlying cause (thyroid seems to be one that gets mentioned a lot?).
But I also know that weight gain and body changes are normal with age and I am doing my best to not get carried away with all the diet culture talk. Is there any research on what the standard expectation is? Or is it true that there may be cases where weight change on its own (without other symptoms or obvious quality of life changes) may be a sign of thyroid or some other issue to look into?
Thank you for being a sane voice in this wild era!
C
Thanks for this great question C!
And you’re totally right, weight changes as we age, and particularly as we enter the four year period known as the ‘menopause transition’ (MT) that lead up to the final menstrual period (FMP), are typical and expected. The panic generated by the perimonopause-industrial-body-fascism-complex, is also so real and stokes fear about these very human changes. And not to put too fine a point on it, but a lot of the fearmongering is coming from companies who want to sell you a GLP-1 alongside your HRT.
Before we get into the thick of it, I want to direct you back to my series from last year, especially part one about the peri-menopause-industrial-complex. It speaks to the complexity of this life-stage; the ways people with a uterus have been done dirty by patriarchal medicine; how rampant ‘female hypercapitalist individualism’ is rebranded as empowerment in the form of pills and potions; the way we’re expected to Girlboss our way through menopause, erasing any physical signs of it happening (similar to the expectations of bounce-back culture after having a baby); how AFAB bodies become unknowable to us with dizzying regularity (puberty; menstrual cycles; chronic illness and pain; pregnancy; lactation; peri-menopause; menopause; ageing). We’re just supposed to pretend like it’s not happening to us, which is financially, physically, and emotionally exhauting. And of course we’re experiencing this on the background of GLP-1s, an industry projected to be worth more than $190 billion by 2035. As well as a voracious ‘tweakment’ and full-on cosmetic surgery boom. For some inexplicable reason, a video of Kim Kardashian popped up in my feed the other day, looking 25, toned, glamorous, and well, really hot, in a conventionally attractive kind of way. This video was to celebrate her 46th birthday. I had to take a minute to remind my brain that THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Kim Kardashian is basically AI-generated at this point. I just want us to hold in mind that by this point in our lives (forties onwards) we’ve lived a lot of life and do we really want to spend the next forty or so (if we’re lucky) years trying to look like an AI version of ourselves?
If not then let’s read on. Because researchers have actually quantified how much weight people typically gain over the menopause transition, and the answer will probably surprise you.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Sign up now and upgrade your account to read the post and get access to the full library of posts for paying subscribers only.
