You know one of the things about getting older is that it can really sneak up on you.

You wake up one morning and you notice a dozen gray hairs have suddenly sprouted on your head.

Look in the mirror.

You realize there's a few new lines on your face

that you hadn't noticed before.

When it comes to your sleep habits, you can't stay up as late as you used to.

And then there are new aches and pains, maybe a few extra

pounds, and you think, my body just isn't what it used to be. Women in particular might notice that new weight creeping on, especially around

the midsection as they approach menopause. In fact, research shows that women gain about

a pound and a half every year during their 50s and 60s.

I went to sleep and I woke up the next day and I promise you I've gained 20 pounds.

Dr. Monica Christmas hears this from her patients all the time.

She is the director of the Menopause program at the University of Chicago Medicine,

where she's also an associate professor of obstetrics in gynecology.

And this pattern of menopausal weight gain wasn't just something she observed in her professional

life.

I looked around at my own family members or maybe other people that I knew that were in that age range and it did seem like wow they did seem to

gain a lot of weight in a short period of time.

Throughout her career, she has now seen thousands of patients who have complained about weight

gain around menopause.

And as Dr. Christmas sees it, her job is to first and foremost listen.

After all, her initial interest in menopause was sparked in part by her own mother, who had

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