A Geriatrician's Warning: The 3 Health Mistakes Women in Their 40s Are Making Right Now

‍

Why Your 40s Are the Most Important Decade You're Not Taking Seriously

‍

Most women in perimenopause are hyper-focused on symptoms: the hot flashes, the mood shifts, the sleep disruptions. And yes, those things matter. However, according to geriatrician Dr. Susan Christensen, whose expertise consists of watching how women's health develops after many decades, the choices you make right now are quietly building (or damaging!) the body you'll live in at 70, 80, and beyond.

b

The trick here is that rewards won't be visible for a while. Nobody will congratulate you on your bone density, sure — but the absence of those invisible foundations is exactly what makes many women show up in her office.

‍

Watch the full episode down below — or keep reading to find out which are the most common health conditions Dr. Christensen sees in older women (which are almost entirely preventable!)

‍

‍

The 3 Most Preventable Health Issues Dr. Christensen Sees in Older Women

‍

1. Osteoporosis — "Once It's Too Late, It's Really Too Late"

‍

This is the one that surprises women the most. By the time osteoporosis lands someone at a geriatrician's office, the damage is already done: they're falling, fracturing hips, suffering spinal and rib fractures, and losing their ability to walk and function independently. That loss of mobility is frequently what ends a woman's independent life.

‍

What makes this especially frustrating? We start losing bone mass as early as our late 30s.

Not in our 60s. Not after menopause. Right now.

‍

The thing is, we DO have the tools to address it early.

And the intervention doesn't have to start with prescription medication. It can start with:

‍

• Calcium and vitamin D (most women in perimenopause are deficient in one or both)
• Weight-bearing exercise (walking, hiking, strength training)
• Resistance training to build the muscle that protects bone
• A DEXA scan to establish your bone density baseline (ask your doctor for this one)

‍

Unfortunately for many women, most of this advice goes to deaf ears. The timeline feels too long, the problem too abstract — until it isn't.

‍

What to do: Osteoporosis is diagnosable and largely preventable. Starting now (in your 40s) is not early. It's right on time.

‍

2. Sleep Problems — The Quiet Setup for Cognitive Decline

‍

If you've been dismissing your sleep disruptions as just another perimenopause symptom, this will reframe how seriously you take them.

‍

Dr. Christensen is very clear about this: the sleep problems women experience in their 40s and 50s may be laying the groundwork for cognitive decline decades later.

‍

Here's why that matters. Memory consolidation (the process by which your brain converts daily experiences into long-term memories) happens during sleep. As she put it on the podcast: "If you're not storing those memories now, you're not going to access them later."

‍

Sleep deprivation is also linked to:

• Increased inflammation (a driver of both cognitive and cardiovascular disease)
• Disrupted glucose metabolism (worsening insulin resistance, which is already elevated in perimenopause)
• Reduced glymphatic clearance (the brain's overnight "cleaning" process that removes toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease)

‍

Perimenopause-related sleep disruption is real and treatable. If you're regularly waking at 2 or 3 a.m., experiencing night sweats that fragment your sleep, or lying awake for hours — that's a clinical problem worth addressing.

‍

What to do: Talk to a menopause-informed provider about sleep. Hormonal approaches (including low-dose estrogen and progesterone) can meaningfully improve sleep quality in perimenopause. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is also an evidence-based treatment.

‍

3. Muscle Mass Loss — The One Nobody Talks About Until It's Gone

Women in midlife often hear about bone density. Fewer hear about sarcopenia: the progressive loss of muscle mass that accelerates dramatically after menopause.

‍

Dr. Christensen sees it constantly in her practice: women who were active in their 40s and 50s, who watched their weight, who looked healthy — but by their 70s, can no longer hike, swim, paddle, or do the things they loved. Not because of disease, but because they never prioritized building and maintaining muscle mass when they had the chance.

‍

Muscle mass is not just about strength. It's about:

‍

• Metabolic health — muscle is your largest site of glucose uptake; losing it accelerates insulin resistance
• Balance and fall prevention — the leading cause of injury-related death in older women
• Functional independence — whether you can carry groceries, get off the floor, climb stairs
• Bone protection — muscle mass and bone density are closely linked

‍

Estrogen plays a critical role in maintaining muscle mass, which is why the perimenopause transition (when estrogen begins to decline) is the exact moment to get serious about resistance training.

‍

What to do: Prioritize progressive resistance training (not just cardio). Aim for adequate protein intake (current evidence suggests 1.2–1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight for active women).

‍

The Uncomfortable Truth About What We Prioritize Instead

‍

Women in their 40s are spending money on Botox, retinol, and Sephora sales — but they are skipping the sleep hours, the strength training, and the bone density scans.

‍

And that's understandable! After all, the visual rewards are real and immediate. But it is never too late to remember this: it's the invisible investments what determine whether you're one of those 80-year-olds crossing the Molokai Channel in a canoe... or in Dr. Christensen's office wishing someone had told you sooner.

‍

The women in Hawaii she described as "super-agers" are not genetic outliers, but those who did the work of taking care of their bodies before things went wrong.

‍

Gliss Wellness provides expert-based, affordable menopause care through our nationwide telehealth platform. Book a free 15-minute appointment at findgliss.com.

‍

‍

‍

‍