Ferritin levels around menopause
Left: When plotted by age, the change looks gradual.
Right: When aligned to the final menstrual period, a clear step-like jump appears at menopause (time = 0). Image Credit: arxiv
An analysis of 300 million lab test results obtained from more than a million women suggests that menopause could be having more extensive impact on the body than previously thought.
The study, titled “Dynamics of Menopause from Deconvolution of Millions of Lab Tests”, compared the data of women from two countries, Israel and the United States. Instead of exploring the correlation between women’s ages, scientists searched for biological changes occurring around a woman’s final menstrual period.
The outcomes were remarkable. The scientists observed changes in tests relating to sex hormones, bones, liver, level of cholesterol, kidney functioning, muscle functionality, level of iron, blood cells, inflammation, and metabolic processes. This indicates that menopause might not be just a transition occurring only in the reproductive system but could have far more extensive implications.
Another interesting discovery was related to the fact that hormonal changes started long before the final menstrual period, approximately 10 years prior. This can provide an explanation of the cause of some health or metabolic changes experienced by women during perimenopause prior to the cessation of their menstrual cycle.
The scientists also noticed that abrupt changes in biological functions were less expressed in women taking hormonal replacement therapy. However, this is not a causal statement and thus cannot be considered as evidence of the effectiveness of HRT in preventing biological changes.
The study has its limitations. The researchers analysed existing hospital records, which means that the causality of changes cannot be proved. Also, since it is a preprint, this means that findings should be treated as preliminary, as the research needs peer review.
Nevertheless, the whole scale of the research is impressive. Should these findings be confirmed, they could make the doctors and researchers reconsider their understanding of menopause as a broad biological transition affecting various systems and not just simply the end of menstruation.
Reference:
Pridham et al., Dynamics of menopause from deconvolution of millions of lab tests (2025 preprint).
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05906
