In the past few weeks, I put together a jigsaw puzzle. Over and over, I searched for the perfectly shaped piece to fit into the next spot, hoping to recreate the beautiful photo on the box. But when I snapped in the last piece, there was an open space left—a piece was missing.
What a letdown. After putting in all that time and effort, there’s an imperfection in the pretty image I was trying to create. Sadly, my eye is drawn to the flaw instead of appreciating the rest of the picture.
Menopause can feel like a letdown, too. When I pass a mirror, my eye is drawn to my wrinkles, jowls, and rounding tummy. Just like with that lovely puzzle, I ignore all the beautiful things about my appearance and zoom in on the negatives.
Instead of focusing on the flaws, I’d rather find ways to look and feel better. Like you, I long to age gracefully, doing whatever I can to preserve the beauty and shape of my youth. Is plastic surgery the only way to restore what once was, or are there more natural solutions? What can we do as women who want to age gracefully?
Women want anti-aging options
In a survey of women 30 to 79 years young, more than four out of five said they suffer from symptoms associated with perimenopause or menopause. And like you and me, they want to take action to improve their own wellness. Most respondents said they viewed aging as “something to be managed proactively.”
Most menopause symptoms affect how we look and feel, from hot flashes and hair loss to dry skin and difficulty sleeping. Let’s look at a few common symptoms and how we can tackle them.
Skin issues
As estrogen declines, our skin becomes drier and thinner. Age spots pop up just about anywhere, but especially on our hands and face. And as collagen diminishes, the wrinkles appear—crow’s feet, forehead creases, and marionette lines. Sagging jowls hover over our neck wrinkles.
Some proponents of aging “naturally” say we should be proud of our wrinkles because they’re evidence of wisdom, experience, and a life well-lived. Personally, I’d like to keep the wisdom but get rid of the wrinkles!
There are things we can do to nourish our skin, like eating healthy foods, drinking enough water, and using moisturizers. Aesthetic treatments, like facials or intense pulsed light therapy, may help, too.
If you don’t mind needles and toxins, getting Botox® injections about every 4 months can treat some facial wrinkles. More drastic procedures like laser resurfacing or microneedling may improve skin texture and tone, but there’s some extended downtime.
If you’re not keen on invasive aesthetic procedures, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) may be a better way to baby your skin. Studies indicate that replenishing hormones may improve skin’s elasticity, moisture, thickness, and collagen content.
Joint pain
Aching shoulders or knees aren’t something we normally associate with menopause. For me, it’s pain in my lower back and fingers. But body aches are pretty common, because female sex hormones help block pro-inflammatory substances in the body called cytokines. As hormones decline, the increase in cytokines causes chronic, body-wide inflammation that leads to achiness. Ouch.
Following an anti-inflammatory diet helps prevent inflammatory substances from getting into your body through food. Doing gentle stretches and low-impact activities like yoga or swimming may help keep muscles more limber. Weight training can strengthen muscles in the aching joints.
But to tamp down the cytokines and decrease chronic inflammation, replacing hormones with BHRT may be the most protective step you can take.
Weight gain
The menopausal middle is real. Starting at the bottom of my breastbone, my once-flat abdomen juts out like I’m 5 months pregnant, with newly formed love handles on each side. It’s discouraging.
Even supermodel, Paulina Porizkova, recently struggled with weight gain. On Instagram, she said that after having surgery in early 2024, she put on 15 pounds. Even though she ate more protein, cut out desserts, and lifted weights, she “hit the post menopause bump” and couldn’t drop the weight.
When the pounds creep on, what can you do? Eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep are important, of course. But that may not be enough anymore.
Hormonal changes in menopause affect metabolism in ways that lead to weight gain, including abdominal fat accumulation. The drop in estrogen boosts the appetite but decreases calorie burn—hence, the waistline expands. Guess what may help? Yep, BHRT again. Replacing estradiol may reverse those effects.
The bottom line
Are you seeing a theme here? You can piece together solutions for everything that sags, aches, and puffs—aesthetic treatments, herbal supplements, yoga, you name it—and get some benefits. But none of these strategies fixes the root cause of menopausal symptoms, which is depleted hormones.
Do you want to age gracefully? Replacing your hormones is the missing piece of the puzzle.
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