Menopause is commonly associated with a gradual decline in reproductive hormones, but a new Israeli study suggests the transition also marks a sharp physiological turning point, affecting a wide range of bodily functions beyond fertility.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science analyzed more than 300 million laboratory test results from over 1 million women in Israel and the United States, identifying abrupt changes in dozens of health indicators around the time of the final menstrual period.
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The research team, from left, Dr. Glen Pridham, Prof. Uri Alon and Yoav Hayut
(Photo: Courtesy)
The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine, suggest that menopause is accompanied by a much broader biological transition than previously recognized, with measurable changes affecting nearly every major system in the body.
Led by Professor Uri Alon of Weizmann's Molecular Cell Biology Department, the researchers examined 90 types of laboratory tests and identified sudden shifts in 52 of them, including measures associated with bone health, liver and kidney function, and cholesterol levels.
The team found no comparable abrupt changes in men of similar ages. The changes were also less pronounced among women receiving menopausal hormone therapy, although the observational findings do not establish that the treatment itself caused the difference.
Changes begin more than a decade before menopause
The researchers also discovered that changes in sex hormone levels begin accelerating more than a decade before menopause, several years earlier than previously thought.
While menopause typically unfolds through a transition lasting several years, the findings suggest that the body also undergoes a distinct physiological shift around the final menstrual period. The results could have implications for preventive health care, potentially allowing women and their doctors to identify emerging health risks and consider preventive measures well before menopause.
Because many of the changes identified are associated with increased disease risk, the researchers believe the findings could support earlier interventions, including changes in exercise and diet. "Our study extends the window for potential preventive care to almost a decade before menopause," Alon said.
"More broadly, the method we developed may help study other major changes in life, such as puberty, pregnancy or the onset of disease."
How researchers identified the hidden turning point
The research team, led by Dr. Glen Pridham and Yoav Hayut from Alon's laboratory, analyzed two extensive medical datasets. The first consisted of results from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which collected health information over more than two decades. The second included approximately 20 years of medical records from Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest health maintenance organization.
One of the major challenges was that large medical databases generally do not record the precise age at which each woman experienced her final menstrual period. Because the timing of menopause varies between women, combining their results can obscure biological changes that occur around that point.
With menocause comes measurable changes affecting nearly every major system in the body., the study found
(Photo: Shutterstock)
To address this problem, the researchers developed a computational method inspired by astronomy. Just as astronomers use mathematical techniques to sharpen images distorted by a telescope, the team developed a way to reduce the statistical blurring caused by differences in the timing of menopause. The approach allowed researchers to identify patterns that would otherwise be difficult to detect in large datasets, revealing changes across multiple physiological systems.
The findings provide a population-level picture of how health indicators shift around menopause, rather than a way to predict precisely when an individual woman will experience those changes. The researchers say the computational technique could also be applied to other major biological transitions, including puberty, pregnancy and the onset of disease.
The study involved researchers from Weizmann's Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology and Regenerative Biology departments, as well as Clalit Health Services, Kaplan Medical Center and Rabin Medical Center.
The findings add to growing scientific interest in understanding menopause not simply as the end of reproductive function, but as a period of broader physiological change with potentially important implications for women's long-term health.