18/10/2026
On World Menopause Day, I've picked up on this insightful article. Research challenging long held assumptions, which I think we've nearly all been guilty of. Hopefully this information from Professor Sarah Berry will help future generations of women to face a less arduous journey. #
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Learnings from the world’s largest study of menopause and nutrition
Menopause affects around half of the world’s population. Despite this, there’s a huge amount of misinformation around menopause, and many women don’t know what they’re experiencing or what they can do about it.
At ZOE, this is something we want to change, and I’m proud that our research could empower women to improve their menopause experience.
While it affects women in different ways, this life stage can be a very difficult time for many, and the more we understand the changes that can happen during perimenopause and menopause, the better placed we are to do something about them.
We’ve carried out the largest research analyses of menopause and nutrition in the world, using data from tens of thousands of women. It’s revealed a lot about the relationships between nutrition, the gut microbiome, and menopause — including some surprising findings — and it’s shown us where we need to go next.
What we’ve learned about menopause symptoms
When people think of menopause symptoms, many will picture hot flushes or night sweats.
While lots of women do experience these symptoms, our research shows that they are not the most common. Instead, women are more likely to experience psychological and cognitive symptoms, such as anxiety, mood swings, and brain fog.
As someone who is going through perimenopause myself, I am also familiar with another one of these common symptoms — memory loss. Forgetting words mid-sentence is commonly reported.
We’ve seen that the range of symptoms is incredibly broad, and that it can look very different from one woman to another. Around 66.0% of the perimenopausal participants in our research reported having at least 12 symptoms.
Symptoms
I was surprised to find that the most common symptoms overall — sleep problems and irritability — weren’t the ones that people reported as the most impactful. Instead, it was weight gain, slowed metabolism, low libido, and fatigue.
These findings just go to show that there’s a disparity between how people perceive menopause and what the reality is like for women.
The role of nutrition
Our research has also offered us insight into the relationship between menopause and metabolism. We’ve seen that metabolism can shift as women transition from perimenopause to postmenopause, including changes in their fasting glucose levels and insulin sensitivity.
We’ve also found associations with the gut microbiome. We discovered that 32 species of gut bacteria can predict both diet quality and the frequency and impact of menopause symptoms.
The good news is that our research also shows the quality of your diet may influence your symptoms.
Eating a more healthy diet with the help of personalised nutrition was associated with a decrease of up to 37% in the likelihood of experiencing particular symptoms during perimenopause.
While this is self-reported data rather than clinical trial proof that personalised nutrition can reduce menopause symptoms, it does indicate that what women eat may play a role in how they experience this life stage.
What I want women to take�away from the science
Through our research, we’ve designed the MenoScale, an online tool to help women assess their menopause symptoms and understand them better.
ZOE MenoScale
We’ve also put together a Menopause Nutrition Guide for women who use the MenoScale, offering simple suggestions to support healthy eating during peri- and post-menopause.
Just as the menopause journey is a personal one, so too is the journey towards good nutrition. And while it can be difficult to make changes to your diet at the best of times, many menopause symptoms directly increase how challenging it is.
At ZOE, we want to try to ease the burden by making it easier to incorporate small impactful changes to your diet.
There’s no one ideal diet that people should follow to help with their menopause transition. Instead, it’s all about finding ways to improve your diet quality where you can.
Changing your breakfast routine or usual snacks can be a great place to start. But even relatively small changes, like swapping white grains for whole grains or adding an extra leafy green to your meals, can make a difference.
Get your MenoScale score and nutrition guide
What comes next
Menopause, and women’s health in general, has been massively understudied throughout history, and there is a huge amount we need to understand better.
At ZOE, we’re not looking to just comment on the latest menopause research. We want to actively contribute to it.��Our scientists are currently busy identifying gut microbiome profiles associated with menopausal symptoms in peri- and post-menopausal women.
Other ongoing research is looking at the relationship between hormone therapies, diet, and menopausal symptoms.
We look forward to sharing the findings from this research with you. If you know someone who might find the information in this email useful, please consider passing it on. The better our collective understanding of the menopause is, the better positioned we will be to support others through the changes it brings.
ZOE turns world-leading science into everyday gut health products.
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