UK weight loss medicine prices
Menopause and midlife: the guides
Weight that moves to the middle, HRT in real numbers, hot flushes, brain fog, your rights at work and what to eat.
9 guides by Sian Anderson. Every clinical claim links to its source. Information, not medical advice. Updated 5 November 2026.
Every woman who reaches midlife goes through the menopause. The symptoms run from hot flushes and broken sleep to low mood, joint pain and vaginal dryness, and many women are told to put up with them. You do not have to.
These guides start with the change most women notice first, weight settling around the middle, and work out from there: HRT with the risks set out per 1,000 women, flushes, mood and memory, early menopause, vaginal and bladder changes, testosterone, and what the law says your employer has to do.
Where a weight loss medicine changes the picture, each guide says how. Every clinical claim links to NICE, the NHS, the British Menopause Society or the trial behind it.
Every guide in this section
HRT benefits and risks in plain numbers
HRT risks per 1,000 women from NICE: breast cancer, clots, stroke, fractures. Patches vs tablets, body-identical HRT, and what the 2002 WHI study got wrong.
Hot flushes and night sweats: what works in the UK
What helps menopause hot flushes and night sweats: HRT, CBT, fezolinetant on the NHS, elinzanetant, other non-hormonal tablets, and the evidence on supplements.
Menopause brain fog, anxiety and low mood
Brain fog, anxiety and low mood in the menopause: why NICE does not put antidepressants first, what HRT and CBT do, and the signs something else is going on.
Early menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency (POI)
Menopause before 45 or POI before 40: how NICE says it is diagnosed, why HRT until about 51 protects bones and heart, fertility, and what to ask your GP for.
Vaginal dryness, UTIs and bladder changes after the menopause
Vaginal dryness, painful sex, UTIs and needing to pee more after the menopause: moisturisers vs lubricants, vaginal oestrogen from a pharmacy, and NICE on UTIs.
Testosterone for women: low libido, NICE and what to expect
When UK doctors offer testosterone for low sex drive after the menopause, what NICE and the British Menopause Society say, off-licence use and side effects.
Menopause at work: your rights and how to ask for support
Your UK rights at work in the menopause: the Equality Act 2010, EHRC guidance from 2024, reasonable adjustments, menopause action plans and how to raise it.
Eating well through the menopause
What to eat through the menopause: NHS calcium and vitamin D targets, what trials say on soy and phytoestrogens, alcohol and hot flushes, and eating on a jab.
Where this overlaps
Bodies do not sort themselves into chapters. These guides from other sections come up again and again alongside this one.
- Heart health after the menopause: the numbers to know (From first period to 70 and beyond)
- Sleep and weight loss: the link that runs both ways (Women's health checks)
- Tired all the time: the causes in women and the tests to ask for (Being heard: women and medicine)
- Bone health while losing weight: calcium, vitamin D and load (Women's health checks)
- Perimenopause, HRT and weight loss medicines (Weight loss medicines and women)
- Keeping muscle while the scales drop (Strength and movement)
- How to check your breasts, and which changes to report (From first period to 70 and beyond)
- Thyroid checks for women: when weight will not shift (Women's health checks)
Menopause and midlife: questions
Where should I start if I think I am in perimenopause?
Start with the weight gain guide if that is what brought you here, or the HRT numbers guide if you want to know whether treatment is worth asking for. A GP can diagnose perimenopause from symptoms alone in women over 45, with no blood test needed.
Can I take HRT and a weight loss medicine together?
Yes. Neither the NHS nor the medicine leaflets list HRT as a reason to avoid one. The perimenopause guide covers the one practical point about oestrogen tablets after a Mounjaro dose rise.
Is menopause a disability at work?
Menopause is not a protected characteristic on its own, but symptoms can count as a disability, and treating someone badly because of menopause can be sex or age discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. The work guide sets out what you can ask for.
Other sections
- Periods, pain and hormones
- Being heard: women and medicine
- From first period to 70 and beyond
- Weight loss medicines and women
- Women's health checks
- Eating well on a smaller appetite
- Strength and movement
- All guides
Sources for this page
- Menopause: identification and management (NG23), recommendations (NICE)
- Quality statement 1: Diagnosing perimenopause and menopause (NICE)
- Regulator provides advice to employers on menopause and the Equality Act (Equality and Human Rights Commission)