Women’s Muscles, Hormones, and Menopause: What New Science Reveals — and How DHEA Fits the Picture
- Orsolya Szathmari
- 5 days ago
- 12 min read
Updated: 17 hours ago
For decades, menopause research has revolved mainly around the ovaries and the changing levels of hormones in the bloodstream. But modern science is painting a broader, more dynamic picture — one that extends deep into our muscles, bones, and mitochondria.
At Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Professor Séverine Lamon and her team have been mapping how women’s skeletal muscle changes throughout adulthood. Their latest studies explore how circulating ovarian hormones — particularly estrogen and progesterone — influence muscle structure and gene activity across the female lifespan.
These findings don’t suggest that muscle replaces the ovaries as a “hormone factory.” Instead, they highlight how profoundly systemic hormones act beyond reproduction. Muscle tissue responds to those hormonal signals, adapting its metabolism, strength, and even its genetic expression patterns in ways that ripple through a woman’s health.
A landmark paper in The Journal of Physiology (2024) (1), Dr Lamon’s group examined women aged 18–80 years, connecting muscle composition, neuromuscular function, and hundreds of molecular pathways with age and hormonal profiles. Their results show clear associations between circulating progesterone and overall muscle mass, and between estrogen levels and tissue composition — revealing that these hormones influence far more than fertility alone.
By mid‑life, when ovarian hormone production begins to decline, muscle strength and contractile power also wane more noticeably. The team’s data trace much of this change to the muscle itself — how its fibers and cellular engines respond to hormone fluctuations, rather than to the nerves that activate them.
As Dr Lamon emphasized, these are associations, not proof of cause‑and‑effect. Yet they open an important conversation: maintaining healthy levels of estrogen and progesterone — whether naturally, through lifestyle, or under medical guidance — may help sustain muscle quality during the menopausal transition.
In short, this research reframes menopause not as an on/off hormonal event, but as a complex biological rebalancing that touches every cell. Understanding how circulating hormones continue to shape muscles after mid‑life can inform smarter training, nutrition, and therapeutic choices — helping women preserve strength, vitality, and energy well into the years beyond menopause.
What Her Team Found Women’s muscles hormones menopause DHEA
Across two landmark papers published in The Journal of Physiology (2024–2025), Dr Lamon and colleagues examined one hundred women aged 18–80 years, mapping:
muscle mass and composition — the ratio of contractile tissue to intramuscular fat
strength and neuromuscular function — how much force muscles can generate
microscopic muscle structure
gene‑expression patterns within the tissue itself
circulating levels of key sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone)
1️⃣ Profiling Muscle Mass, Function, and Molecular Signaling in Females Aged 18 – 80 Years
With age, total and thigh‑muscle mass declined, individual fibers became smaller, and fat and fibrotic tissue gradually replaced contractile proteins.
Women with higher circulating progesterone concentrations tended to have greater total muscle mass — an association that suggests a possible supportive role for this hormone, though causation has yet to be established.
Higher estrogen levels correlated with greater subcutaneous and intramuscular fat deposition, whereas testosterone within normal female ranges showed no significant relationship with muscle size or strength.
More than 3,000 genes changed their expression with each decade of life: those governing mitochondrial energy production became less active, while those related to transcription and cellular turnover were up‑regulated.Interestingly, relatively few of these molecular changes were directly tied to measured blood‑hormone levels, implying that responses within the muscle are shaped not only by circulating hormones but also by intrinsic cellular aging processes.
2️⃣ The Contribution of Age and Sex Hormones to Female Neuromuscular Function
Muscle strength and power declined gradually until mid‑life and then dropped more sharply around the menopausal transition — the period when ovarian hormone output falls steeply.
This decline appeared to originate primarily within the muscle tissue itself rather than in the nerves that control it. Post‑menopausal women with relatively higher circulating estrogen and progesterone maintained better muscle performance, suggesting that these hormones may help preserve contractile quality — again, an association rather than a proven mechanism.
“The menopausal transition is a turning point in female muscle aging.”— Deakin University IPAN Media Release, Dec 2025
Together, these studies provide a comprehensive, data‑driven picture of how age and ovarian hormones interact to shape women’s muscle structure and function across the adult lifespan.
Why This Matters
Dr Lamon’s research doesn’t just chart the decline of strength with age — it offers a new framework for understanding opportunity. Her data reveal that circulating ovarian hormones continue to influence muscle tissue long after their reproductive role fades.
Women’s mid‑life years appear to represent a decisive turning point: as estrogen and progesterone levels change, muscle fibers, mitochondria, and supporting genes respond in ways that affect energy, balance, and physical capacity. Recognizing this link allows healthcare professionals — and women themselves — to approach menopause not as inevitable loss but as a stage where targeted choices can maintain vitality.
While the Deakin University studies describe associations rather than cause‑and‑effect, they underline how hormonal balance interacts with lifestyle. Regular resistance training keeps protein‑synthesis pathways active, good nutrition supports mitochondrial metabolism, and sufficient rest helps regulate stress hormones that can otherwise disrupt recovery. All these factors combine to preserve muscle integrity through perimenopause and beyond.
Simply put: muscle health reflects hormonal health, and nurturing both — through movement and balanced living — strengthens a woman’s foundation for aging well.
How to Support These Hormones Naturally
Even after ovarian output declines, the body continues to rely on a delicate hormonal network that responds to sleep, nutrition, and physical activity. While Lamon’s current research focuses on how circulating hormones act locally in muscle, rather than being synthesized there, supporting the whole system keeps that communication working effectively.
Nutrition: Hormones are built from nutrients — especially healthy fats, proteins, and micronutrients such as zinc, magnesium, selenium, and vitamins B5, B6, and C. Under-eating or chronic restriction deprives the endocrine system of these raw materials and can destabilize thyroid and adrenal balance.
Strength training: Two to three sessions of resistance or strength exercise weekly help maintain muscle mass and insulin sensitivity. This keeps metabolic pathways responsive to hormonal signals. Exercise may not increase hormone production directly, but it keeps the muscle’s cellular machinery open to those signals. (7, 8)
Rest and stress regulation: High cortisol levels can interfere with sex‑hormone balance and recovery. Gentle breathing, nature walks, journaling, or meditation help sustain the adrenal rhythm. Consistent, restorative sleep protects both hormonal and metabolic resilience.
Balanced metabolism: Avoid chronic caloric deficit or extreme low‑carb patterns that drive prolonged stress responses. Steady, moderate eating patterns keep estrogen and progesterone receptors more responsive and prevent excessive SHBG (sex‑hormone‑binding globulin) from reducing circulating hormone availability.
Digestive and liver health: Hydration, protein, fiber, and limited alcohol intake support efficient estrogen metabolism. A healthy gut microbiome aids the body in clearing and recycling hormones appropriately.
Sunlight and rhythm: Natural light anchoring the circadian cycle enhances sleep quality and cortisol patterns, completing the feedback loop between the endocrine system and daily behavior.
These principles — nutrient sufficiency, physical strength, stress control, and recovery — do not replace medical care, but they complement it.They help each woman create an internal environment where her hormones, even at lower levels, continue to work efficiently for muscle tone, energy, focus, and well‑being.
Everyday Habits That Protect Midlife Hormones
Lifestyle shapes how the body responds to circulating hormones — even when total levels decline.The deeds that protect muscle, energy, and mood are the same ones that help the endocrine system stay in balance.
Feed the pathway
Include healthy fats (eggs, olive oil, fatty fish, tallow, lard, avocado) — these supply the cholesterol backbone from which ovarian and adrenal hormones are made.
Pair fats with quality protein and micronutrients such as zinc, magnesium, selenium, and vitamins B‑complex + C, all needed for enzyme activity involved in hormone metabolism.
Calm the adrenals
Manage stress through breathing, quiet time, journaling, or time outdoors.
Keep a steady sleep–wake rhythm: dim light at night, bright exposure in the morning.
Chronic stress elevates cortisol, which in turn competes with recovery and muscle maintenance.
Train your hormones — through movement
Two to three weekly sessions of resistance or strength exercise will maintain lean mass, insulin sensitivity, and metabolic flexibility.
While such training hasn’t been proven to increase sex‑steroid synthesis directly, it keeps the signaling pathways those hormones act on fully operational.
Balance metabolism
Avoid extreme dieting or severely low‑carb intake, both of which may blunt thyroid and sex‑hormone responses.
Favor balanced meals that sustain energy and reduce unnecessary cortisol release.
Support estrogen clearance
Hydrate well and maintain regular digestion to aid the liver and intestines in metabolizing hormones.
Limit alcohol intake and focus on healthy gut motility, which help excrete estrogen metabolites effectively.
Harness natural rhythms
Regular daylight exposure, moderate physical activity, and intentional rest all strengthen circadian coordination — an underappreciated pillar of endocrine stability.
Key idea: You can’t prevent menopause, but you can help your body work with its changing hormones. A strong, nourished, and well‑rested body amplifies what those hormones still do best — support strength, focus, and vitality.
Progesterone’s Quiet Power#progesterones-quiet-power
Among female hormones, progesterone often takes a supporting role to estrogen, yet it contributes significantly to well‑being across multiple systems. It interacts with the brain, the nervous system, and the musculoskeletal framework — particularly relevant through mid‑life.
Research by Smith et al. (2020) showed that progesterone, alongside testosterone, can stimulate muscle‑protein synthesis in post‑menopausal women. Dr Lamon’s findings align with and support this picture: higher circulating progesterone was associated with greater muscle mass and function across her cohort of women aged 18–80. However, these are associations, not proofs of direct cause‑and‑effect — a crucial scientific distinction that makes ongoing studies so exciting.
Beyond muscle, progesterone:
Calms the nervous system through its neurosteroid metabolite allopregnanolone, supporting restful sleep and resilience under stress.
Helps maintain metabolic balance by counteracting some of estrogen’s proliferative effects.
Serves as a precursor in the synthesis of other hormones like cortisol and androgens.
When stress, under‑nutrition, or disrupted sleep deplete pregnenolone — the parent molecule from which progesterone and DHEA derive — hormonal communication can falter. Rebuilding that foundation through nourishment, rest, and balanced living often restores harmony across multiple systems.
In essence: progesterone steadies the orchestra while estrogen provides the melody. Both continue to matter long past menopause — especially for preserving muscle and mental calm.
The Overlooked Player: SHBG
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) determines how much of each sex hormone is freely available to interact with tissues. Levels of SHBG rise in response to several factors — oral estrogens, thyroid activity, very low caloric intake, or low androgen production — effectively reducing the amount of active hormone circulating.
Dr Lamon’s findings explore hormonal associations in muscle but do not specifically test SHBG’s role in muscle function. Still, understanding SHBG is useful: it explains why total estrogen or testosterone readings in blood aren’t always the whole story. Body composition, nutrition, and metabolic health all influence the balance between bound and unbound hormones.
Maintaining muscle mass, adequate protein intake, and stable metabolic status may support a healthier SHBG profile, keeping hormone signaling steady without the need for speculation about local hormone production.
From Lab to Life: Local DHEA Therapy
While Dr Lamon’s recent papers focus on circulating hormones acting on skeletal muscle, other research has examined local hormone delivery in specific tissues — particularly in the genitourinary tract. Clinical studies on intravaginal DHEA (prasterone) have demonstrated restoration of vaginal tissue thickness, elasticity, and lubrication with minimal systemic absorption (14, 15).
Intravaginal DHEA (prasterone) is one such therapy with solid clinical evidence. Here’s what studies show:
DHEA applied locally can be converted within vaginal and urethral cells to the estrogens and androgens the tissue requires.
This improves mucosal thickness, elasticity, blood flow, and microbiome balance.
Because the action remains mostly local, systemic exposure is minimal — showing how “local activity” works in a therapeutic context.
This concept — hormones used where they’re needed — helps illustrate the broader physiological principle Dr Lamon’s work highlights: that tissues respond uniquely to hormonal signals, even when those hormones originate elsewhere in the body.
For skeletal muscle, that conversation is only beginning. Early reviews, including Lamon et al., 2022 (5), describe the enzymes potentially involved in local steroid metabolism, but verifying how strongly these processes occur in human muscle will require the next generation of studies.
Lifestyle Factors That Support Healthy Hormone MetabolismMovement & exercise: Regular strength or endurance activity improves mitochondrial efficiency, circulation, and metabolic redox balance — all of which help the body process and utilize hormones effectively. Nutrients: Zinc, magnesium, selenium, and vitamins B5, B6, and C act as enzyme cofactors in general steroid metabolism and energy production. A nutrient‑dense diet keeps these biochemical pathways running smoothly. Healthy fats: Provide the cholesterol backbone needed for hormone synthesis in the ovaries and adrenals. Adequate dietary fats also support cell‑membrane integrity, which affects hormone receptor function. Anti‑inflammatory diet: Reducing chronic inflammation protects tissues and supports the overall endocrine network by stabilizing insulin and cortisol responses. Stress & sleep balance: Lower stress and adequate sleep help maintain normal cortisol patterns, preventing diversion of precursors away from sex‑hormone production and aiding recovery. |
The Lifestyle Equation
Every finding from Dr Lamon’s team tells the same story: movement, nourishment, and stress balance don’t just “support wellness” — they directly regulate the enzymes and receptors that maintain hormonal vitality.
Take‑Home Insights
|
The Future of Women’s Hormone Health
Professor Lamon’s team is building one of the clearest physiological maps yet of how women’s muscles age. Their research suggests that the menopausal transition is not simply a sudden “shutdown,” but a complex, gradual re‑balancing of hormone signaling throughout the body (5).
Understanding these interactions — progesterone’s link with muscle mass, estrogen’s influence on tissue composition, and the gene‑expression changes that accompany aging — allows both physicians and women to make choices grounded in evidence rather than fear.
The message is empowering, but nuanced:
Circulating ovarian hormones continue to act on body tissues long after fertility ends.
Maintaining strong muscles, balanced nutrition, and restored sleep keeps those signals effective.
Investigating how local hormone metabolism contributes will add another layer of understanding in the coming years.
Menopause is not the end of hormone communication — it’s a new conversation between hormones and the tissues that listen to them (5).
References & Further Reading
Lamon S et al. (2024). Profiling muscle mass, function and molecular signaling in females aged 18–80 years and their associations with sex hormones. The Journal of Physiology.
Lamon S et al. (2024). The contribution of age and sex hormones to female neuromuscular function across the adult lifespan. The Journal of Physiology.
Lamon S et al. (2023). Associations between female sex hormones and skeletal muscle ageing: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.
Lamon S et al. (2022). The role of estrogen in female skeletal muscle ageing: A systematic review.
Lamon S et al. (2022). Role and regulation of intramuscular sex hormones in skeletal muscle: A systematic review. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Smith G I et al. (2020). Testosterone and Progesterone, but Not Estradiol, Stimulate Muscle Protein Synthesis in Postmenopausal Women. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Kraemer W J et al. (2020). Hormonal Responses and Adaptations to Resistance Exercise and Training. Sports Medicine.
Tsampoukas G et al. (2023). Effects of exercise on sex steroid hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) in eumenorrheic females: A systematic review and meta‑analysis. BMC Women’s Health.
SCWD Annual Conference Programme (2026). Abstract 4‑58: Local sex hormone concentrations in skeletal muscle.
Deakin University IPAN Media Release (Dec 2025). “The menopausal transition is a turning point in female muscle aging.”
Professor Séverine Lamon — Deakin University Profile [link]
Payne A H & Hales D B (2004). Overview of steroidogenic enzymes in the pathways from cholesterol to active steroid hormones. Endocrine Reviews.
Labrie F et al. (2017). Intracrinology: Autonomy of peripheral tissues in the regulation of sex steroids. Endocrine Reviews.
Labrie F et al. (2009). Effect of dehydroepiandrosterone on vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal women. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 6(8), 2571‑2584.
Portman D J, Archer D F, Constantine G D et al. (2017). Safety and efficacy of prasterone for the treatment of vulvovaginal atrophy. Menopause, 24(12), 1401‑1409.
Acknowledgment
With gratitude to Professor Séverine Lamon (Deakin University, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition) for sharing her team’s latest findings and for clarifying the scope of their published research. Interpretations beyond those data — such as potential tissue‑level hormone synthesis — are discussed here for educational context only and remain active areas of scientific investigation.
💡 What changes have you noticed in energy, strength, or sleep across perimenopause?
Comments