Menopause Symptoms and Treatment
How The Pause Plan Supports You, Head to Toe
Menopause affects a lot more than your cycle and body temperature, though those get most of the attention. Many women first notice it somewhere else, like more hair in the shower drain or skin that stays dull even with a good routine. Others find they are sweating more during the day or leaking a little when they cough or laugh.
These changes are common and treatable, yet many women never mention them to anyone. A Menopause Foundation of Canada survey found that 1 in 2 Canadian women feel unprepared for perimenopause and menopause, and 54% believe the topic is taboo.
This article looks at the less-discussed physical menopause symptoms, why they happen, and the non-surgical options available at Sovereign Skin in Toronto.
Perimenopause vs. Menopause: Getting the Timeline Right
What Is the Average Age of Menopause in Canada?
The average age of menopause in Canada is 51, although it commonly ranges between the ages of 45 and 55. Strictly speaking, menopause is a single point in time: when the ovaries “run out” of eggs, the body’s estrogen levels drop significantly, and periods stop for 12 consecutive months.
When Does Perimenopause Start?
Perimenopause is the stretch leading up to menopause, usually lasting from six to eight years – which means that most women experiencing perimenopause symptoms are in their 40s.
Perimenopause is where most of the confusion sits. Estrogen and progesterone don’t decline in a tidy line. They swing, sometimes sharply, from one month to the next.
That long, uneven runway is why perimenopause symptoms are so easy to misread. A 43-year-old with new skin sensitivity and a thinner ponytail may not link either to hormones, particularly if her cycle still seems mostly regular. The typical perimenopause age overlaps with busy careers and family demands, so changes often get chalked up to stress or fatigue.
What Happens After Menopause?
After menopause comes postmenopause, which lasts for the rest of a woman’s life. Symptoms driven by hormone fluctuation, like hot flashes, tend to subside at this stage, while symptoms caused by low hormone levels can continue to worsen. Skin and pelvic tissue changes often fall into the second group.
The Menopause Symptoms That Get Less Airtime
Estrogen doesn’t only act on the reproductive system. Its receptors are found in skin, hair follicles, sweat glands, the bladder, and the pelvic floor. When levels shift, all of those tissues respond in their own way and on their own schedule.
Skin that Loses Firmness and Glow
Estrogen plays an important role in supporting collagen production and helping skin hold on to water. When it drops, the effect can be surprisingly quick. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, skin loses roughly 30% of its collagen during the first 5 years of menopause.
Women often notice a change in quality before they notice new lines. Skin looks duller and takes longer to recover from a late night. Laxity often shows first along the jawline and lower face, while the neck starts to look crepier and fine lines around the eyes and forehead become more noticeable.
Thinning Hair
Hair can become finer and shed more readily during the menopause transition. As estrogen falls, the relative influence of androgens increases, causing hair follicles to gradually shrink – this may be especially noticeable in women with a genetic predisposition. The part may look wider, or the crown may show more scalp under bright light.
It’s one of the menopause symptoms women find the hardest to bring up. It’s also worth addressing early, because hair follicles that are still active respond far better than those that have gone dormant.
Excessive Underarm Sweating
Night sweats get plenty of attention. Less discussed is the everyday underarm sweating that some women notice during perimenopause and beyond, sometimes with a change in odour. For some women, it’s a minor irritation. For others, it becomes a deciding factor in what they wear and which colours they avoid.
Pelvic Floor and Bladder Changes
Lower estrogen affects the tissues that support the bladder and urethra, and pelvic floor muscles weaken with age and past pregnancies. The result may be leaking when coughing, running, or lifting, a sudden urgent need to go, or a mix of both.
Many women quietly adjust their lives around it, skipping the spin class or mapping every washroom on a road trip. Bladder leakage is common, but it isn’t something that has to be accepted as permanent.
Why a One-Size-Fits-All Approach Falls Short
Two women of the same age can have almost nothing in common in how menopause shows up. One may be dealing with dull skin and hair thinning but no bladder concerns at all. Another may feel that her face looks much the same, while sweating and urinary leakage chip away at her confidence.
A fixed package built around a generic symptom list would over-treat one of these women and under-treat the other. There is no one-size-fits-all menopause experience, and there shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach to navigating it.
That’s the thinking behind The Pause Plan at Sovereign Skin: a personalized menopause package that brings together treatments based on the specific symptoms and concerns that each woman is experiencing, from head to toe.
Non-Hormonal Treatments for Menopause Symptoms at Sovereign Skin
The options below are non-surgical and non-hormonal. They focus on the physical changes that affect how women look and feel, and they can sit comfortably alongside any medical care that a woman receives from her physician.
Skin Quality, Laxity, and Dullness: Zaffiro and HIFU
Zaffiro is designed to hydrate the skin while improving the appearance of firmness and overall skin quality. It suits women whose main complaint is that their skin looks tired or has lost its resilience, even if deeper sagging isn’t yet a concern.
HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound) delivers focused energy to the deeper layers beneath the skin’s surface to stimulate collagen, offering a non-surgical option for facial skin tightening. It’s often considered for the jawline, lower face, and neck. Results build gradually over the following months as new collagen forms.
For many women, the two work well together: HIFU addresses structure, while Zaffiro focuses on hydration and surface quality.
Hair Thinning: Laser-Based Therapies and Purasomes Hair
Hair-focused treatments at Sovereign Skin include laser-based therapies, which use light energy to support follicle activity, and Purasomes Hair, which is formulated to support the scalp environment and hair quality. These are best suited to women who are noticing thinning or a change in texture rather than complete hair loss.
Hair changes can also be linked to thyroid function, iron levels, and other medical factors. If shedding is sudden or heavy, it’s worth having bloodwork done with your doctor alongside any in-clinic treatment.
Excessive Underarm Sweating: miraDry
miraDry is a non-surgical treatment designed to permanently reduce underarm sweat and odour. It uses controlled energy to target the sweat glands, and since those glands don’t regenerate once they’ve been treated, the results are long-lasting. For women who have spent years planning outfits around sweat marks, it can be a practical and freeing change.
Pelvic Floor and Bladder Concerns: StarFormer
StarFormer uses electromagnetic stimulation to strengthen and tone the pelvic floor muscles. The stimulation produces muscle contractions that are difficult to replicate with Kegel exercises alone, which many women find hard to perform correctly or consistently. The treatment can help address urinary incontinence and bladder leakage, and the best part is that it is non-invasive.
What the Pause Plan Looks Like in Practice
Every plan starts with a consultation. That conversation covers which changes you’ve noticed, when they started, which ones bother you the most, and any relevant medical history. From there, our team recommends a combination and sequence of treatments that fits your priorities and schedule.
Plans also change as you do. The concerns of a woman in perimenopause at 46 are often different from those she’ll have at 56. For post-menopause symptoms around age 60 and beyond, treatment tends to focus on skin laxity and pelvic floor strength, with the same non-surgical options remaining suitable at that stage.
Honest expectations are part of the process. These treatments improve specific concerns; they don’t reverse the hormonal transition itself, and most require a series of sessions to see the full effect.
Working Alongside Your Doctor or Menopause Specialist
Sovereign Skin’s treatments address the physical and aesthetic side of menopause — but they don’t replace medical care. Hormone therapy and prescription options for hot flashes, sleep, mood, and bone health should be managed by a family doctor or gynaecologist or a menopause specialist.
Many women in Toronto combine the two, seeing a menopausal doctor or a menopause clinic in Ontario for hormonal and medical care while turning to Sovereign Skin for skin, hair, sweating, and pelvic floor concerns. If you’re looking for a menopause specialist near you, the SOGC Menopause Hub is a reliable starting point.
Any bleeding after menopause, sudden severe hair loss, or new pelvic pain should be checked by a physician first.
Feeling Informed and Supported Through the Change
The physical changes of this stage are real, and they are far more common than the quiet around them suggests. Knowing what’s behind them makes them easier to discuss, and knowing that there are effective options makes them easier to address on your own terms.
If you’re noticing changes in your skin, hair, sweating, or bladder control, a consultation at our Toronto clinic is a simple first step toward a Pause Plan built around you and your experience of menopause.
Sovereign Skin
59 Hayden Street, Suite 701
Toronto, ON M4Y 0E7
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