It’s Never Too Late: How Small Changes in Your 50s Can Transform Your Menopause Journey

following on from previous blog – ‘How Your Younger Years Shape Your Menopause Journey’)

Have you read the previous blog I wrote for ‘How your younger years shape your menopause journey’?  Did it concern you that you are already shifting (or have shifted) into your 40-50’s and worried that you have left it ‘too late’ to have a positive impact on your wellbeing.

Well.. don’t panic.  As I said at the end of that blog, its never too late.

If you have hit your midlife and suddenly realised you’ve not exactly lived like a wellness guru… you’re not alone, in fact you are in the majority, welcome to the real world. Many women arrive in perimenopause feeling underprepared, overwhelmed, or convinced they’ve somehow “missed the boat.”

But the truth is: you haven’t.

Our body is incredibly adaptable, our hormones respond to lifestyle more than you realise, and the science is clear — positive changes made now can still profoundly improve your menopause experience and your long-term health.

If your younger years were more about working hard, raising families, juggling life, surviving burnout, dabbling in diet culture, or drinking whatever was cold and in the fridge… you can breathe. Menopause is not a judgement of your past — it’s an invitation to care for yourself differently now.  I invite you to join me to make positive change and take steps to ease you through the process.

Why Midlife Is the Perfect Time to Reset

Perimenopause is a transitional period where your hormones fluctuate wildly. This creates both challenges and opportunities. The decline in oestrogen affects bone, muscle, brain, mood, and cardiovascular health — but this also means your body is highly responsive to supportive lifestyle changes.

Movement Still Makes a Measurable Difference

An honest confession, if you have only got to know me recently, you might think I’ve always been a fan of exercise and that I’ve been going to the gym for years.  Nope! My exercise journey didn’t start until my late 40’s when I started seeing the signs of neglect.  It manifested in higher blood pressure, fatigue, wobbly body, and a general feeling of ‘getting old’.  Something happened with one of my clients , it was as though someone had reflected back at me the consequences of years of neglect, and I realised I had to make some changes before life became even more overwhelming and tricky.  I joined a gym.  I had never been one for team sports (the sort of exercise we are exposed to in school) and regular gyms felt intimidating with loads of people who knew what they were doing. I’ve since discovered when you find the movement/exercise that you enjoy, in a welcoming environment where there is no judgement – wow you can do so much more than you every imagined.  It’s just about finding that magic nugget.  Gyms aren’t for everyone.  Some people prefer the solitude of running alone, some prefer team sports, the beauty is there is something out there for everyone, it can just take a little while to find it.  When you have the end goal of feeling better about yourself, giving yourself a mental break, being able to move with ease, you will have a better chance of finding your thing. Even if you haven’t exercised consistently in decades, starting now has huge benefits.

What the research shows

Regular movement in midlife:

• reduces the severity of hot flushes

• improves sleep quality

• reduces anxiety and low mood

• preserves bone density

• supports cardiovascular health

• slows the accelerated muscle loss that happens around menopause

The science repeatedly shows that exercise doesn’t need to be extreme (we’re not all crossfitters or hyrox crazy)— it just needs to be regular. Even small amounts create change because your muscles, bones and metabolism remain responsive throughout life.

But I get it, it’s hard to know where to start if you haven’t been moving much since school, sat at a desk for hours.  For most people. I’d suggest starting simple.  It needs to be sustainable, challenging, and achievable and the simplest movement most can do is walking.  Obviously if you have limited mobility for whatever reason you will need to adapt any suggestion I make, but you know yourself what is impossible.  As always, listen and work with your unique body.

How to begin

• 20–30 minutes of walking most days

• two short resistance sessions per week (bodyweight is fine)

• stretching, Pilates or yoga for ease, mobility, and calm

• anything that lifts your heart rate a little

  
  

This isn’t about chasing youth, and becoming 20 again, it’s about supporting the person you are today.

Alcohol: Small Adjustments = Big Gains

Eek the hard one for a lot of people.  In your 20’s you could probably have a night out drinking with friends and suffer very little the next day (you might have a hangover, but it would pass after a day of junk food and napping).  As we age, the effect of alcohol becomes more impactful, with sleep disruption, noticeable weight gain that you struggle to shift, brain fog worsens.  Basically, many symptoms of menopause are exacerbated by alcohol. If you’re noticing alcohol hits you harder than it used to — you’re not imagining it.

Hormonal fluctuations change the way we metabolise alcohol, affect temperature regulation, and impair sleep.

Reducing alcohol intake in midlife can:

• improve sleep

• reduce hot flushes

• lower anxiety and mood swings

• ease brain fog

• support long-term heart and liver health

  
  

Again, the goal isn’t perfection — it’s awareness.  Some people reach their mid age and decide alcohol is no longer part of their life, but others still like the social side of it, and not often talked about – enjoy the taste.  That’s ok, it's moderation that matters, even if you’ve been a long-time social drinker.

Stress & Burnout: The Midlife Accelerator

That build up (or down depending on your perspective) towards mid life can be overwhelming, and many women reach midlife depleted — careers, caregiving, relationships, health, and life pressures accumulate. High cortisol over many years makes menopause symptoms worse.

But shifting your stress response now is one of the most effective changes you can make. There are so many ways to shift your stress response, its all about calming down your nervous system.  From tapping into creative activities, to moving more, to being comfortable with ‘doing nothing’ (one of the hardest things to do, even harder to tell people we are doing nothing). The guilt I see from people who feel they have to justify to friends and family is incredible.  People who almost see relaxing and taking care of themselves as a guilt secret/pleasure.  This needs to stop!  We need to take stock of stress and understand it is not a necessary evil of life.

As oestrogen drops, the nervous system becomes more sensitive. Reducing stress strengthens your resilience, supports sleep, and calms thermoregulation — meaning fewer or less intense hot flushes.

Changes that help immediately

• better sleep routines

• breathwork and mindfulness

• boundaries (yes, really)

• rest that is not “earned,” but necessary

• small daily habits that signal safety to your body

  
  

Your system is designed to recalibrate. Burnout isn’t a life sentence.

Smoking & Vaping — Benefits Begin the Moment You Stop

Amazingly, after years of campaigning, including huge price increases in cigarettes, there is a trend of younger women taking up smoking.  If this is you, or you have someone in your life is a smoker, try to encourage them to avoid it (if they want to listen).

If you’ve smoked for years, here’s the good news, quitting at any stage improves your menopause transition and reduces risk of:

• early menopause severity

• cardiovascular disease

• bone fractures

• poor oxygenation and fatigue

• sleep disruption

  
  

The benefit is rapid. Your body thanks you quickly. And yes, while vaping isn’t as well studied yet, the chemistry alone suggests caution.  I always describe vaping as a way of drowning yourself in chemicals.   Who wants to choose that as a thing?

Medication, Painkillers & Substance Use — Awareness Helps You Take Control

Creaky joints, aches and pains, poor sleep patterns, a build up of medication (prescribed and otherwise) comes with an increase in medications.  I see so many people in the treatment room who are on a cocktail of drugs for all sorts of ailments.  Yes, some of these medications are necessary and I would never advise anyone to stop taking them.  However, ask yourself, when was your last medication review for your prescription meds, when did you last check in on yourself when you grabbed for the bathroom cupboard painkillers.  Are they masking an issue you haven’t dealt with? Could you take alternative action to prevent the need or ease the symptoms. Midlife is often the point where long-term medication use increases — painkillers for old injuries, sleep aids, or years-old prescriptions that no longer match your physiology.

Checking in with a GP or pharmacist can help you understand:

• which medications may worsen sleep

• which contribute to low mood

• which interact with hormone changes

• whether alternatives exist

If you are on HRT, have you checked that other drugs can work alongside?  Did you tell your GP what other things you take, including any supplements?

If you have regularly been taken non prescription or illegal drugs, obviously these will not help you long term.  Seek help, it’s never too late to make positive changes.

Bone, Heart & Brain Health — You Can Still Protect Them

I’ve covered most of this in the other points above, but it worth focusing on bone, heart, and brain health. During menopause, oestrogen decline accelerates bone loss, increases cardiovascular risk, and can affect cognitive clarity.

Another reminder that lifestyle changes in your 40s and 50s are shown to:

• strengthen bones (through resistance training & nutrition)

• reduce heart disease risk by up to 80% with combined movement, diet, and stress reduction

• support memory, mood, and focus

• ease transitions through perimenopause

Your future self benefits enormously from the choices you make now.

A Mindset Shift: Midlife Isn’t Decline — It’s Design

Mindset is crucial at this time (at any time but particularly during midlife).  With Anxiety kicking in, worry, feelings of fatigue, it can be hard to have a positive mindset.  It can feel like the world (and your body) is fighting you every day.  Remember, menopause isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something your body moves through. It’s a transitional time, like puberty, like pregnancy, and as with any hormonal shift it doesn’t last forever.  Even though it feels like it at the time.

It’s been said to me that not much seems to get me stressed.  Its not really true.  I do get stressed, about the things I can control or impact – the stress comes from frustration when I haven’t taken action to ease things.  But I tend not to stress too much about the things completely out of my control.  Other people’s actions or words, political situations, trauma you see daily in the news.  I can’t control these.  I can control how they make me feel or how much I expose myself to them.  The things I can control are when I exercise, what I eat, when I go to bed to sleep, when I rest, when I get creative.  These are my levellers. What are yours?

Remember:

You are not powerless.You are not too late.And you absolutely have influence over your physical, emotional, and energetic wellbeing.

Every small change — a walk, a stretch, a calmer bedtime, one less drink, a breakfast with protein, a decision to rest — is a message to your body that you are supporting it through shifting ground.

A Final Reminder

If you’re reading this thinking: “I’m 48… 52… 57… I’ve left it too long.”Please know — you haven’t.

Your body responds beautifully to care at any age.Your hormones may be shifting, but your influence over your wellbeing remains powerful.

Mid age life is not an ending — it’s a recalibration, a redesign, and an opportunity to create a stronger, calmer, more supported version of yourself.

And you can start today.Because it’s never, ever too late.