SYMPTOM · PERIMENOPAUSE
Hair loss
Finer hair, more strands in your brush or in the shower, a parting that seems to be widening: hair loss affects more than one in two women after the menopause.
Why it happens
Oestrogen extends the growth phase of the hair. As levels fall, along with a relatively greater sensitivity to androgens, this cycle shortens and the hair fibre gradually becomes finer: this is known as female pattern hair loss.
What can make hair loss worse
- Stress, which can temporarily speed up hair loss.
- Iron or vitamin deficiencies, worth checking with a blood test.
- Hairstyles or treatments that pull on the hair or weaken it.
- A diet low in protein.
In the moment
- Avoid brushing wet hair too vigorously.
- Limit heat (straighteners, hairdryer) when hair loss is more noticeable.
- Choose hairstyles that don't pull on the roots.
Day to day
- Eat a diet rich in protein, iron and zinc.
- A blood test can rule out other causes of hair loss (thyroid, iron).
- Some specific treatments can help slow the thinning of the hair.
Is your hair loss worrying you or speeding up?
A healthcare professional can identify the exact cause and guide you towards the most effective treatment.
For information only. This does not replace a personalised medical assessment.
If several of these symptoms ring true, it's no coincidence.
Menopause isn't just about hot flushes. Symptoms can begin years before your last period and affect sleep, mood, energy, memory, weight and intimate health.
Click on a symptom to find out more.
Brain fog
You search for words, reread the same sentence twice, lose the thread mid-conversation. Nothing to worry about: your brain is simply running slower, with less glucose to fuel it as oestrogen levels fall.
Sleep problems
Asleep in ten minutes yesterday, wide awake at 3 a.m. today, for no reason. Progesterone, which helped you switch off at night, is in shorter supply, and deep sleep takes the hit straight away.
Anxiety
Stress that spikes over an email, a meeting, running ten minutes late. Oestrogen affects serotonin: when it yo-yos, everything feels heavier to carry than before.
Joint pain
Knees that creak as you stand up, hands that feel stiff in the morning. Cartilage loses its best anti-inflammatory ally as oestrogen falls, and you feel as if you are rusting up all over.
Hot flushes
A wave of heat rising from the chest to the face, lasting one to five minutes. Deprived of oestrogen, the thermoregulatory neurons in the hypothalamus narrow the thermal neutral zone: a few tenths of a degree are enough.
Palpitations
Your heart suddenly races, with no effort and no reason. Oestrogen also influences the nervous system that sets your heart rhythm. Alarming in the moment, rarely serious.
Mood swings
You laugh, and thirty seconds later you could cry or tell everyone where to go. Hormones rise and fall faster than before, and your mood follows, without warning.
Weight gain
Your tummy rounds out even though nothing on your plate has changed. Oestrogen redirects fat storage towards the abdomen, and your metabolism runs a little slower than before.
Low libido
Desire takes longer to arrive, or barely arrives at all. Oestrogen and testosterone fall, and sensitivity with them. The desire is still there; it just takes longer to get going.
Vaginal dryness
A feeling of dryness, sometimes a little discomfort day to day. Tissues lose their natural moisture as oestrogen falls. It is a common symptom, and still too rarely talked about.
Irregular periods
One cycle shorter, another dragging on, a month skipped altogether. Ovulation becomes less regular as the ovaries slow down. It is often the very first sign of perimenopause.
Night sweats
Waking up drenched in the middle of the night, sheets to change, sleep cut short. It is the same hot flush as during the day, night-time edition, and it wakes you just as surely.
Pain during sex
Discomfort, sometimes real pain, during or after sex. Tissues thin as oestrogen falls, and what never used to be a problem can become sensitive.
Dry skin
Skin that feels tight, marks more easily and seems to have lost some of its bounce. Collagen declines with oestrogen, by up to 30% in the first few years after menopause.
Chronic fatigue
Tiredness that will not lift, even after a good night. Broken sleep, falling hormones: your body runs less efficiently, and you feel it from morning to night.