Research
Hormonal
Menopause triggers a shift in fat distribution from protective subcutaneous tissue to harmful visceral adipose tissue due to declining estrogen levels, increasing the risk of metabolic disease.
As you approach menopause, your body will naturally start storing more fat around your organs (visceral) rather than your hips and thighs. This increases metabolic risk. Hormone replacement therapy can partially reverse this shift, but lifestyle management of visceral fat becomes critical.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Thus, menopause, evident from a decrease in oestradiol levels and an increase in FSH, triggers a relative shift in adipose tissue accumulation, specifically from SAT to VAT accumulation, and this finding is partially reversed by oestrogen hormone replacement therapy.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple citations in the review.
Source
Sex- and Gender-Related Differences in Obesity: From Pathophysiological Mechanisms to Clinical Implications
Andrijana Koceva et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2024
DOI 10.3390/ijms25137342
narrative_reviewCited 108×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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