A large study of middle-aged women shows that age-related changes in skeletal muscle are part of everyday life for women in their fifties.
During this time, women transition from perimenopause to postmenopause, and the production of estrogen ceases. Loss of estrogen has an effect on muscles and leads to a decline in muscle mass. Physical activity in all of its forms may help maintain muscle mass in midlife.
“We already knew that estrogen has a role in the regulation of muscle properties,” says doctoral student Hanna-Kaarina Juppi.
