Читать книгу Menopause Without Weight Gain: The 5 Step Solution to Challenge Your Changing Hormones - Debra Waterhouse - Страница 16

This is as complicated as it sounds.

Because women are waiting longer to have children, an ‘over 40’ pregnancy, almost unheard of in our mothers’ generation, is now becoming quite common. If you get pregnant at the beginning of the transition, oestrogen levels soar instead of drop, and the fat cells in your buttocks, hips and thighs put on an extra 10 pounds. Then, after you deliver your child, oestrogen levels drop because you’re postpartum – and continue dropping because you are entering the menopause.

We don’t know where pregnancy weight gain ends and menopausal weight gain begins. We don’t know when postpartum depression ends and menopausal mood changes begin. Because of these blurred boundaries, many women, like Sally, are confused during this time: ‘I always knew that there was something more to my postpartum depression. It never went away. My midwife said it was the “baby blues” and would disappear within a couple of weeks. But two years later, I feel like nothing has disappeared – including my pregnancy weight.’

Women don’t have the time to lose the weight they gained during pregnancy before their fat cells realize that they are in the perimenopause, and want to multiply and store again for different reasons. Two of the most powerful fat-storing times in a woman’s life are occurring simultaneously. And if a third factor, breastfeeding, is added to this scenario, fat cells want to hold on to their fat for dear life – just in case that famine hits while your infant is dependent on your milk production for survival. Even though we read and are told that breastfeeding leads to weight loss, most women report that they don’t lose weight until after they stop breastfeeding. If pregnancy and breastfeeding are a part of your midlife weight gain experience, look on the positive side. You have a new child to go along with any extra weight. Most women are thankful to conceive later in life and grateful to know the reasons why they are gaining weight (instead of losing) in the years following delivery.