Menopause Changes Your Body. Testing Helps You Understand It

Estrogen decline causes fat to shift from the hips and thighs toward the abdomen, including visceral fat around the organs. This is why many women notice increased belly fat during menopause even without weight gain. DEXA measures visceral fat directly.

Women lose muscle mass at a faster rate after menopause due to declining estrogen and growth hormone. Less muscle means a slower metabolism and greater difficulty maintaining a healthy body composition.

Women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the 5–7 years following menopause. This dramatically increases fracture risk. DEXA is the gold standard for measuring bone mineral density and tracking whether your bones are staying strong over time.

Menopause is associated with a meaningful reduction in resting metabolic rate, independent of muscle loss. RMR testing reveals your true daily calorie burn, which many women in menopause find is significantly lower than any app or formula estimates.

Many women in menopause are told to "eat less and exercise more" without any actual data on their body composition, metabolic rate, or bone health. A DEXA scan and RMR test together give you and your doctor or wellness provider real numbers to work with. Whether you're making decisions about HRT, adjusting your training, or discussing bone health with your physician, this data matters.

•  In perimenopause or menopause and noticing body composition changes despite no lifestyle changes
• Concerned about bone density and wanting a baseline before it becomes a clinical concern
• On hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and want to verify it's preserving muscle and bone
• On GLP-1 medications and want to make sure they're losing fat - not muscle and bone
• Exercising consistently but finding the scale won't move (body recomposition is very common in this stage)
• Working with a trainer, dietitian, or functional medicine practitioner who wants objective data to guide your program
• Post-menopausal and wanting annual monitoring of bone mineral density

The Menopause Baseline Package: Start with a DEXA scan to establish your body fat, lean muscle, visceral fat, and bone mineral density. Add an RMR test to understand your true metabolic rate right now. Together, these give you and your care team the most complete picture of where your body is and the data to guide what comes next. 

DEXA body composition scans provide your total body bone mineral density and T-score. For a formal clinical diagnosis or a dedicated hip and spine bone density scan, your physician may recommend an additional clinical DXA. We encourage all clients to share their results with their healthcare provider. No referral is needed to book with us. 

A single scan gives you a baseline. But the real value in menopause is tracking change. We recommend follow-up scans every 12-24 months for bone mineral density monitoring, and every 12-16 weeks if you're actively working on body composition. Each follow-up scan builds a longitudinal record that gives you and your doctor a timeline of how your body is responding to lifestyle, medications, or hormone therapy.