MenopauseTalk

When Menopause Starves Your Hair:

The Science, the Stories and the Realities Women of Colour Live With

Every major shift in women’s health has a tipping point. A moment when what we thought we understood turns out to be incomplete. Hair loss in menopause is one of those tipping points.

Most women are told it is “just aging.” The NHS describes menopausal hair thinning as common, often offering reassurance, lifestyle tweaks or Minoxidil. It is well-intentioned, but the explanation is incomplete.

The evidence tells a more intricate story grounded in endocrinology, follicular biology and crucially, cultural experience.

Hormones, Hair Follicles & Menopause:

What the Research Shows

We often talk about menopause as if it is an ending. But in truth, it is a turning point, a recalibration of the body’s chemistry, rhythm and sense of identity.

One of the most visible and misunderstood signs of this transition is hair loss. By age 50, over 40% of women experience noticeable thinning, yet most are told it is “just part of aging.” Science tells a different story.

What is really happening is a hormonal imbalance, not a slow decay. During menopause, estrogen and progesterone, the two hormones that nurture, protect and sustain hair follicles, begin to fall. Their decline leaves hair unprotected from a more dominant hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which miniaturises follicles and slows growth. In other words, it is not time that is taking your hair. It is chemistry.

Celebrating Menopause Month

This month, we pause not to whisper about menopause, but to celebrate it. Too often, society frames menopause as an ending, a slowing down, a fading away. But in truth, it is a beginning. It is a season where wisdom ripens, self-awareness deepens and women step into a power unshaken by old expectations.

Menopause is not just about hot flashes or hormone shifts, it is about transformation. It is the body’s way of saying “you have carried enough for others. Now is the time to carry yourself with pride.”

In this group, we honour every stage of the journey:

• The courage it takes to embrace change

Is it Hot Flushes or Hypertension Beyond Menopause?

As women transition through menopause, symptoms like sudden heat, palpitations or dizziness are common. But here is the critical question, is it a hot flush or could it be high blood pressure (hypertension)?

This distinction matters, especially because cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of death in post-menopausal women worldwide (World Health Organisation, 2021).

Here are 5 key points with data and evidence:

1. Hot Flushes vs. Blood Pressure Surges

The Hidden Language of Menstruation and the Silence Around Black Women’s Pain

In every doctor’s office, there is a quiet vocabulary that determines how women’s pain is recorded, treated or dismissed.

Words like dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia and amenorrhea are not just medical jargon, they are signals, codes that unlock care or close the door to it. Yet who gets to use these words and who gets heard when they do, tells a bigger story about health inequity than most of us realise.

Understanding the Terminology

Behind each clinical term lies a lived reality, an experience that reaches far beyond a line in a medical textbook. These words describe the rhythms and disruptions that can shape a woman’s physical, emotional and professional life.

Our Culture Has Had Little to Say About Menopause, Let’s Change That

For decades, menopause has been framed as an ending, a biological shutdown, a loss of youth or worse, a punchline. Our culture has had little to say about it beyond whispers and warnings.

But what if we imagined menopause differently? What if it marked the beginning of a new chapter,  one that liberates us from biological and societal expectations and invites us to redefine ourselves on our own terms?

Menopause is not just a medical milestone. It is a deeply personal transformation,  physical, emotional and cultural. For many women, hot flushes are one of the most visible and disruptive symptoms. But what happens after menopause? Do they ever stop and is the experience the same for everyone?

Let’s Talk Hot Flushes

Do They Ever Really Stop?

For many women, the end of monthly periods is supposed to mark freedom from hot flushes, but reality often tells a different story.

These sudden waves of heat, sometimes followed by a pounding heartbeat or night sweats, are more than a passing nuisance. They are the visible signs of a profound neurological shift. When oestrogen levels fall, the hypothalamus, the brain’s internal thermostat, becomes hypersensitive, misreading even slight changes in body temperature as a reason to cool down.

The result is a surge of heat that can interrupt sleep, cloud concentration and erode confidence at work or in relationships.

Time For A Balanced Conversation About Menopause

The Lancet’s 2024 Menopause Series reads less like a medical manual and more like a quiet call to reset an entire cultural narrative. Across four papers, researchers trace the contours of early menopause, mental health, cancer-related menopause and a new empowerment model for managing the transition.

Their argument is disarmingly simple. Menopause is not a disease to be “fixed” yet for decades it has been treated as one. By framing it as an oestrogen-deficiency disorder best solved with hormones, medicine and marketing have created a cycle of stigma, over-prescription and profit.

The Series pushes for an individualised, evidence-based approach. Some women sail through with minimal discomfort, others wrestle with night sweats, insomnia or mood shifts that can upend daily life. Hormone therapy can help, but it’s not a universal answer and it carries measurable risks, including higher breast-cancer incidence.

Rethinking Menopause

A Multi-Organ Approach to Women’s Health (with BME Lens)

Menopause is often framed as a hormonal shift, but new research is challenging that narrow view, especially for Black and minority ethnic women. A pioneering initiative, the MODEL Programme (full name: Multi-Organ Approach to Address Diseases Following Estrogen Loss), is set to transform how we understand menopause-related health issues across multiple body systems.

Seasons of Change

If you have ever felt a hot flash rise like a summer sun or noticed your mood dip with the long winter nights, you are not imagining things and you are not alone.

Our bodies are tuned to the rhythm of nature and that ongoing dance between sunlight, temperature and hormones can make menopause feel like a moving target. For Black, Asian and other minority women, that rhythm is even more complex and revealing.

Why Seasons Matter

Here is the science in plain language.