During menopause, your body significantly lacks the hormones estrogen and progesterone, leading to issues like hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal dryness, and sleep problems; it also experiences declines in bone density, muscle mass, and can see impacts on cognitive function, requiring increased focus on nutrients like calcium and Vitamin D for bone health.
Hormone therapy can often help the bleeding problem while also alleviating the associated symptoms of perimenopause, such as hot flashes and night sweats. Oral contraceptives can be offered as treatment in the appropriate patient. Oral progestins can be given cyclically or only when the flow is heavy.
Avoid trigger foods: Identify and reduce foods that may cause bloating, such as dairy, high-fat foods, carbonated drinks, and artificial sweeteners. Stay active: Regular exercise, like walking, yoga, or Pilates, can help keep your digestive system moving and reduce bloating.
Focusing on plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Choosing lean sources of protein, such as fish and low-fat dairy products. Limiting processed meats, as well as the saturated fat that's found in meat and high-fat dairy products, such as cheese and butter.
Herbal remedies that are sometimes taken for menopause symptoms include:
Here are the top five vitamins essential for female wellness during menopause.
Here are six estrogen-positive foods to avoid:
Getting rid of belly fat during menopause can be challenging, requiring changes to diet, exercise, and lifestyle. While it can be harder to lose belly fat during menopause due to hormonal changes and metabolic shifts, it is not impossible.
Herbal teas containing spearmint, red clover, and chasteberry help balance hormones and reduce menopausal symptoms. Coconut water replenishes electrolytes lost during hot flashes and maintains proper hydration levels. Green tea offers antioxidants and mild caffeine while supporting energy levels during menopause.
Many of the healthful eating recommendations during menopause are the same as those in the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends focusing on nutrient-dense foods and beverages and limiting those with added sugars, saturated fat and sodium. Limiting alcohol consumption also is recommended.
During menopause, we recommend avoiding high-impact activities that stress joints and bones, including running on hard surfaces, box jumps, burpees, and unmodified CrossFit workouts. Heavy free weights and explosive movements can also increase injury risk due to hormonal changes affecting cartilage and joint stability.
To debloat your stomach fast, focus on moving your body with light cardio or stretching, drinking herbal teas (peppermint, ginger) for digestion, applying heat with a warm compress, using over-the-counter gas relievers like simethicone, getting abdominal massages, and ensuring you're well-hydrated. Avoiding trigger foods and carbonated drinks also helps quickly reduce trapped gas and water retention.
Five Signs That Menopause Is Ending
Skipped periods during perimenopause are common and expected. Often, menstrual periods skip a month and return. Or they skip a few months and then start monthly cycles again for a few months. Period cycles tend to get shorter in early perimenopause, so periods are closer together.
There aren't any foods that can stop heavy periods. However, it is important to eat foods rich in vitamin C and iron if you have heavy periods. This is because heavy bleeding can reduce your iron levels, which can cause anaemia. Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron.
While ibuprofen is a strong pain reliever, it would take a high dose to affect your period. “Stopping a period would require a higher dose than any over-the-counter bottle recommends: about 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, every six hours, or 500 milligrams of naproxen, three times a day,” says Russell.
Menopause in Asia
One school of thought is that the Japanese diet is high in soy, which contains isoflavones that mimic estrogen. This is important, because many menopause symptoms (such as hot flashes) occur due to a lowering of estrogen levels.
3 Day Menopause Reset Plan
The 3 Day Reset Plan is a perimenopause and menopause nutrition eating plan that prioritises the foods that balance blood sugar levels. The plan is suited for women who are perimenopausal and menopausal and aims to reduce swings in blood sugar, allowing energy levels to become more balanced.
The 1-2-3 drinking rule is a guideline for moderation: 1 drink per hour, no more than 2 drinks per occasion, and at least 3 alcohol-free days each week, helping to pace consumption and stay within safer limits. It emphasizes pacing alcohol intake with water and food, knowing standard drink sizes (12oz beer, 5oz wine, 1.5oz spirits), and avoiding daily drinking to reduce health risks, though some health guidance suggests even lower limits.
When will menopausal weight gain stop? The number on the scale won't keep going up and up. It does stabilize. But in perimenopause and those initial few years after the final menstrual cycle, we see the most pronounced amount of weight gain, which can have serious implications to health and overall wellbeing.
How to get rid of menopausal belly fat? Moderately reducing calories and reducing carbohydrates may help reduce meno belly. Make sure you're eating enough protein (about 20 to 30 grams per meal), opting for lean protein sources like chicken, fish, tofu, and beans.
An abdominoplasty or tummy tuck procedure will often be the best method for removing a hanging belly. This is a surgical procedure performed under general anaesthetic. The procedure will remove both excess fat and skin from the abdomen creating a flatter stomach.
Alcoholic beverages, particularly red wine and bourbon, increase estrogen levels in the body through hormone disruption mechanisms. Coffee and caffeinated beverages can increase estrogen levels specifically in Asian populations. Soy-based drinks contain phytoestrogens that mimic estrogen effects in the body.
Diet can also play a significant role in maintaining a healthy estrogen level in the body by minimizing processed foods and prioritizing foods high in fiber and healthy fats, like olive oil, avocados, nuts, and fish.
To increase your estrogen levels, consider adding: