We're learning more about how menopause ages the body faster — 6% faster - Toronto Star

Toronto experts explain the ways perimenopause can profoundly affect a woman's overall health and longevity. 

Amanda Thebe’s perimenopause ordeal began after a boxing class when she was 42.

When she came home unusually exhausted, the Toronto-based fitness coach chalked it up to pushing herself too hard. But the exhaustion didn’t go away, and evolved into extreme vertigo that left her unable to stand. “I was crawling on the floor, I was throwing up,” she told the Star.

Over the following months, Thebe developed debilitating migraines, chronic fatigue, depression and incontinence. “I went from being the fittest I’ve ever been going into my forties, to, by 44, being literally on my knees every morning when I woke up. I couldn’t function,” Thebe said. One day, she woke up, looked in the mirror and thought, “Is this what old age looks like?’”

She saw numerous physicians and specialists, but none could pinpoint what was wrong. Two years after Thebe’s symptoms began, she finally found a gynecologist who linked her symptoms to perimenopause. “You’re not losing your mind,” she said the doctor told her. “You’re just losing your estrogen.”

Amanda Thebe experienced debilitating migraines and vertigo during her transition into menopause.

Menopause and perimenopause, the stage leading up to a person’s final period, can profoundly affect health and longevity. A growing body of evidence suggests menopause can accelerate the biological aging process — but even though up to 80 per cent of women experience menopause symptoms, relatively little is known about the phenomenon.

“We know that menopause marks the end of reproduction, but we’re beginning to understand that menopause is actually a full body transition,” said Jennifer Rabin, a clinical neuropsychologist and scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

Most women hit menopause, which officially begins 12 months after the last period, at age 51 in Canada, but it can range from ages 45 to 55.

In the years before menopause, the body will dramatically reduce production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. In this perimenopause phase, which is on average four years, symptoms often begin, Rabin said. 

Join Rani Sheen, Dr. Marjorie Dixon, Dr. Paula Rochon and Melissa Grelo for a conversation that