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Women's Health

Beyond hot flashes

By , Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch

Falling estrogen and rising inflammation can fuel a surprising array of menopause symptoms,

illustration on a purple background with a white silhouette of a woman on the left next to a word cloud centered on the word menopause

We’re told what to expect when we’re expecting — but not so much at midlife, when we might not expect to inhabit a body that no longer feels quite like our own.

Yet that’s exactly what happens to a startling number of women as menopause approaches. Relatively predictable symptoms such as hot flashes, mood shifts, vaginal dryness, and hide-and-seek periods can be trumped by a tsunami of new concerns from head to toe.

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About the Author

photo of Maureen Salamon

Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch

Maureen Salamon is executive editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. She began her career as a newspaper reporter and later covered health and medicine for a wide variety of websites, magazines, and hospitals. Her work has … See Full Bio
View all posts by Maureen Salamon

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