Scientific Director and Associate Professor, Sheffield Hallam University
Why chronic low-grade inflammation belongs in the menopause conversation — and where the evidence actually stops.
The menopause conversation is usually a story about estrogen: hot flushes, mood swings, bone loss, all filed under “declining hormones.” That's true, but a parallel story is emerging in the scientific literature: the menopause transition is also an inflammatory event, and increasingly it looks like a live rehearsal of “inflammaging,” the chronic low-grade inflammation now recognised as a formal hallmark of ageing (Furman et al., 2019) and one we have covered in our hero blog 'Longevity, Healthspan and the Inflammation Epidemic'.
Menopause involves a cascade of physiological changes in hormone, cardiovascular, bone and neurological systems, driven by a decline in ovarian function. These changes extend beyond the reproductive system, affecting multiple organs with both short-term transient symptoms and longer-term health effects.
Longitudinal data from one of the biggest studies of menopause — the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) — shows blood markers of inflammation, namely C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) climbing around the final menstrual period by more than normal ageing alone would predict (SWAN, 2025) and this maps onto symptoms women actually report. These elevated systemic inflammation markers track with women experiencing more severe physical symptoms on a Menopause Rating Scale (Korpe and Kose, 2024), and perimenopausal depression is linked to this elevation in inflammatory cytokines and markers of inflammation within the brain known as microglial activation (Zhang et al., 2024).
Three interventions have real trial evidence behind them that have measurable impacts on inflammation:
When considering supplementation, particularly like Daily Vitals, for menopause support, we want to consider what effect changing inflammation might have on the physical symptoms a woman might experience. Using the dietary Inflammatory Index (DII), a validated score of how pro- or anti-inflammatory a diet is gives the clearest natural experiment.
Women in the highest DII bands (most pro-inflammatory diets such as those high in refined carbohydrates, saturated and trans fats and red meat) report significantly worse menopause symptom scores and quality of life than those more anti-inflammatory patterns (Diets rich is vegetables, fruits, omega-3, polyphenols and fibre) (Bayram and Gürbüz, 2025). These associations extend past the day-to-day symptoms that women experience with women having a more anti-inflammatory diet during the perimenopausal window having a near 30% reduction in bone fractures over the next 20 years (Shieh et al., 2023).
This isn’t just limited to physical effects — postmenopausal women eating the most pro-inflammatory diets had over 11-fold higher odds of cognitive impairment than those eating anti-inflammatory ones (Skoczek-Rubińska et al., 2021). Whilst, these are associations and not proof of causation, the evidence is encouraging in favour of lowering inflammation during menopause.
There are handful of well-studied anti-inflammatory supplements to consider here. Not as a replacement for diet, exercise, sleep or HRT, but as a complementary layer with real biomarker evidence, and it's the same evidence base behind AEVUM's Daily Vitals formulation.
Not everything in the menopause is inflammation-driven, and it's worth resisting the urge to over-claim the importance of inflammation. The hot flushes and night sweats most women associate with the menopause do not track with inflammatory markers in the largest longitudinal dataset available (Gold et al., 2022). However — inflammation does appear to be a driver of the physical, cognitive, mood and structural (bone, cardiometabolic) symptoms experienced during perimenopause and have long term consequences for older women.
For women navigating perimenopause and the menopause, inflammation is a genuine, evidence-backed target for intervention, and whilst not the whole picture certainly one that has demonstrable short and long terms benefits. Targeting an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern, adding in resistance and aerobic exercise, protecting sleep, and hormone therapy where appropriate and clinically discussed, remain the interventions with the strongest evidence. However, a targeted supplementation with Daily Vitals will provide a complementary intervention to help lower inflammation and one that at an ingredient level has shown benefits during the menopause.
Personal decisions about diet, supplements or hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms should be made with a licensed clinician who knows your history.
References:
Bayram H, Gürbüz M. 2025. Dietary Inflammatory Index: is it really associated with postmenopausal symptoms? Climacteric.29:67–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13697137.2025.2524174
Farshbaf-Khalili A, Ostadrahimi A, Mirghafourvand M, et al. 2022. Clinical efficacy of curcumin and vitamin E on inflammatory-oxidative stress biomarkers and primary symptoms of menopause in healthy postmenopausal women: a triple-blind RCT. J Nutr Metab. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6339715
Furman D, Campisi J, Verdin E, et al. 2019. Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nat Med.25(12):1822–1832. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0675-0
Gold EB, Xing G, Avis N, et al. 2022. The longitudinal relation of inflammation to incidence of vasomotor symptoms. Menopause. 29:894–904. https://doi.org/10.1097/gme.0000000000002005
Hou S, Tian Z, Zhao D, et al. 2023. Efficacy and optimal dose of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on inflammation-related biomarkers: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and updated meta-analysis. Mol Nutr Food Res. 67(13):e2200800. https://doi.org/10.1002/mnfr.202200800
Jia Y, Zhou Z, Cao X. 2024. Prevalence of poor sleep quality during menopause: a meta-analysis. Sleep Breath. 28:2663–2674. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-024-03132-y
Khalafi M, Malandish A, Rosenkranz S. 2021. The impact of exercise training on inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Exp Gerontol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2021.111398
Korpe B, Kose C, Keskin H. 2024. Systemic inflammation and menopausal symptomatology: insights from postmenopausal women. Menopause. 31:973–978. https://doi.org/10.1097/gme.0000000000002433
López-Otín C, Blasco MA, Partridge L, Serrano M, Kroemer G. 2023. Hallmarks of aging: an expanding universe. Cell.186(2):243–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.001
Medoro A, Davinelli S, Fogacci F, et al. 2024. Palmitoylethanolamide in postmenopausal metabolic syndrome: current evidence and clinical perspectives. Nutrients. 16(24):4313. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16244313
Shieh A, Karlamangla A, Huang M-H, et al. 2023. Dietary Inflammatory Index and fractures in midlife women: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgad051
Skoczek-Rubińska A, Muzsik-Kazimierska A, Chmurzyńska A, et al. 2021. Inflammatory potential of diet is associated with biomarkers of inflammation and cognitive function among postmenopausal women. Nutrients. 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072323
Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). 2025. Relation between systemic inflammation and the menopause transition. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 110(11):e3566–e3576. https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaf175
Zahorodnia O. 2025. The effect of menopausal hormone therapy on biomarkers of systemic inflammation. Ukrainian Journal Health of Woman. https://doi.org/10.15574/hw.2025.3(178).2327
Zhang Y, Tan X, Tang C. 2024. Estrogen-immuno-neuromodulation disorders in menopausal depression. J Neuroinflammation. 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-024-03152-1
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