Let’s put an end to the ‘meno belly’ shaming.
While menopause is having a moment debunking hormone replacement therapy myths from the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative, there’s one other toxic menopause narrative that must be addressed. We’re expected to conform to cultural body shape and size ideals that don’t honor the natural body changes that occur in menopause and with aging.
As a post-menopausal woman, I’ve experienced those shifts. And as a healthcare professional, I’m concerned that unrealistic body standards can create a never-ending war with our bodies. Those ideals damage our body image and self-esteem and can lead to disordered eating and exercise behaviors that are normalized in midlife and beyond.
To truly advance menopause wellbeing, healthcare professionals must honor midlife+ body changes and shift away from the body control narrative to help our patients and clients focus on body care, capability, and gratitude instead.
Positive body language matters
Stigmatizing body language has no place in an empowered menopause space.
Pathologizing midlife+ body changes is problematic. “Blast your meno belly fat” shame-filled messaging needs to go. Words that describe our bodies as broken and require fixing undermine our basic human need to be accepted, fit in, and be seen as healthy and worthy.
Realistic messaging respects the redistribution of body fat from our hips and thighs to our abdomen is a natural part of the menopausal process due to hormonal shifts. It’s not caused by something we’ve done wrong or should feel ashamed about or need to hide. But because we’re bombarded by messages insisting that we get rid of it, we might feel like we must cover up.
Collectively, by normalizing midlife body changes, we can change that.
“We often think about the changes in girls’ bodies during puberty and how that can influence self-consciousness, teasing, bullying, and eating disorder risk. But we talk less about how those changes around the menopause transition can have a similar effect,” says Cynthia Bulik, founding director of the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence in Eating Disorders, in a “Today’s Dietitian” article titled “Menopause and Eating Disorders.”
Hormonal changes impact body shape in puberty and again through the menopause transition. That’s why menopause is referred to as a second puberty. Most women gain an average of 8 to 15 lbs. during the menopausal transition reports author Margo Maine in her book “Pursuing Perfection: Eating Disorders, Body Myths, and Women at Midlife and Beyond.” While body shape shifts occur due to hormonal changes, weight increases in midlife+ are attributed to many factors including aging, genetics, and lifestyle shifts.
When we reframe midlife+ body changes as a natural part of the menopausal transition and the aging process, we can put an end to the ‘meno belly’ shaming and the pressure to fix and control our bodies. We can focus instead on caring for them.
No magical menopause diet
When I read over those “Blast your meno belly fat” tips, they were simply nutrition and lifestyle recommendations that I would advise for anyone in midlife+. Nothing listed would magically blast anything away —because there is no special “menopause diet.”
Val Schonberg, Menopause Society Certified Practitioner (MSCP) and Registered Dietitian (RD) agrees. In a recent Instagram post, Schonberg shares that “misleading women that there is a ‘safe or proven’ solution to ‘control’ menopausal weight (and feel better about their body) isn’t any different than any other manipulation of body weight such as dieting, drugs, or other forms of restrictive eating.”
“It’s another form of gaslighting menopausal women who are already distressed and confused about this stage of life,” says Schonberg.
Even if a program promotes quality lifestyle and nutritional advice like increasing fiber, let’s be mindful of the same old diet culture messaging —if you follow this plan perfectly for 30 days, you’ll see results. And perhaps you do. But I’ll remind you: it’s completely normal and expected after the 30 days to return to being human and naturally imperfect. Yet we blame ourselves. We say we just got “off track.” We’ve been here before. Stuck in the same old vicious diet culture cycle.
Those menopause plans instill false hope that we’ll permanently return to our pre-menopause body shape and size. We deserve better. Let’s not fall prey to diet culture, once again.
Eating and exercise in menopause
While recommending a menopause plan might seem benign, it’s not.
Recognize that women going through the menopause transition – which encompasses perimenopause through menopause – are at elevated risk of eating disorders. Eating disorders are more likely to be missed in midlife based on two false beliefs: that we’re too old and/or don’t fit the stereotypical body type – thin.
In her article, “Menopause & Eating Disorders,” registered dietitian, Carrie Dennett recommends that healthcare professionals screen for eating disorders and make referrals to eating-disorder-informed providers when necessary.
Furthermore, in the fitness space, Amanda Thebe, personal trainer and author of “Menopocalypse,” shares that “women are so much more than how they look, and the focus needs to change. There is a growing movement in the fitness world to show women that aging and menopause can be liberating.”
The reality: even if we do “all the right things,” our bodies will change with aging. Let’s honor them with respect and care.
Our bodies, our homes for life
“Your body is your life partner. Not your life’s project,” says registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and pro-aging, body liberation advocate, Deb Benfield. She believes we must blaze a liberating new path to a respectful, nurturing relationship with our aging bodies. And I agree.
At a time when menopause is having a moment, we have the profound opportunity to shape-shift the narrative around midlife+ body changes to truly advance menopause wellbeing.
Let’s put an end to the ‘meno belly’ shaming.
- For more on menopause wellbeing, please read Menopause myths stymie real growth. ♡ Tanya(Published in the September 18, 2024 edition of the Jackson Hole News and Guide).
