# Aging and Adiposity—Focus on Biological Females at Midlife and Beyond

## TL;DR

This review explores how menopause and aging in women are linked to changes in hormones and increased belly fat.

## Contribution

The paper highlights the interplay between menopause-related endocrinology and metabolic changes in aging biological females.

## Key findings

- Reproductive aging is associated with hormonal shifts that influence metabolic changes.
- Central adiposity increases alongside reproductive aging and worsens after menopause.
- Endocrine pathway alterations often precede and contribute to aging-related physiological changes.

## Abstract

Menopause is a physiological phase of life of aging women, and more than 1 billion women worldwide will be in menopause by 2025. The processes of global senescence parallel stages of reproductive aging and occur alongside aging-related changes in the body. Alterations in the endocrine pathways accompany and often predate the physiologic changes of aging, and interactions of these processes are increasingly being recognized as contributory to the progression of senescence. Our goal for this review is to examine, in aging women, the complex interplay between the endocrinology of menopause transition and post-menopause, and the metabolic transition, the hallmark being an increasing tendency towards central adiposity that begins in tandem with reproductive aging and is often exacerbated post menopause. For the purpose of this review, our choice of the terms ‘female’ and ‘woman’ refer to genetic females.