It could be perimenopause, the period before the cessation of your menstruation, says nurse practitioner Daniela Ezratty, MSN, ACNP-BC, of Ezratty Integrative Aesthetics in Atlanta, where she treats many women of perimenopausal age. Usually, this starts somewhere around age 40, but it can come as early as 35 for some. “Perimenopause is when there’s a drop in estrogen and progesterone, but you’re still getting your period,” she says. Once you’ve stopped having a period for a full year, then you’ve officially entered menopause.
The changes in your body that come along with perimenopause can be frustrating, and you might be tempted to counteract the symptoms with exercise. But what’s happening on a biological level can’t be controlled by defaulting to the same workouts you might have done in your 20s or early 30s.
“In perimenopause and menopause, we lose muscle mass twice as fast as any ot