Menorexia is an informal term for disordered eating that surfaces for the first time or returns during perimenopause or menopause. It is not a formal clinical diagnosis and covers restriction, bingeing, compensating, and rigid food rules. Researchers describe the menopause transition as a window of vulnerability for eating disorders comparable to puberty.

What Is Menorexia? Menopause, Body Image and the Life You’re Postponing

Q: How do I know if my habits are healthy or disordered?

The distinction often is not visible from the outside. The questions worth asking are: what is driving this habit, and what is it costing me? Habits that expand your life and leave room for flexibility are generally self-supporting. Habits that narrow your life or generate anxiety when disrupted deserve closer attention.

Q: How do I stop waiting for my pre-menopause body to come back?

Start by naming what you have been postponing. Then do one small version of it in the body you have right now. The pre-menopause body is not coming back in the form you remember, and the life that has been on hold is happening anyway.

Somewhere around 47 or 48, a lot of women catch sight of themselves in a store window and don’t quite recognize the person looking back. The body they spent decades managing has started making its own decisions. And a very familiar voice shows up with a plan.

In Episode 135 of How to Lose the ‘WAIT’, I talk about menorexia, the eating disorders and disordered eating that can appear or return during perimenopause and menopause, and about the quieter way so many women put their lives on hold while they wait for their bodies to go back to normal.

What Is Menorexia?

Menorexia is an informal term, a blend of menopause and anorexia, used to describe disordered eating that surfaces for the first time or comes back during the menopause transition. It isn’t a formal diagnosis, and it covers far more than restriction: bingeing, compensating, and rigid food rules all fall under the same umbrella.

Eating disorders are still widely thought of as a teenage problem, and that’s part of why midlife eating disorders so often go unnoticed. Researchers now describe the menopause transition as a window of vulnerability comparable to puberty, because shifting hormones, a changing body, and big life transitions tend to land all at once.

In the 2012 Gender and Body Image study, about 13 percent of surveyed women 50 and older reported eating disorder symptoms. A 2023 analysis in Menopause estimated that roughly 3.5 percent of midlife women meet full clinical criteria, with individual symptoms considerably more common.

When Healthy Habits and Old Rules Look the Same

Strength training because you want to stay strong as you age is one thing. Feeling panicked about missing a workout because you’re afraid of what your body will do without you is something else.

Eating more protein because it helps you feel well is one thing. Gradually crossing more and more foods off the list because you’re scared of gaining weight is something else.

From the outside, you often can’t tell the difference. And honestly, from the inside, it can be hard to tell too, especially if you’ve spent decades following rules that used words like “clean,” “disciplined,” and “on track.”

The language is gentler than the diet ads we grew up with. The promise underneath it hasn’t moved an inch.

The question worth asking about any habit: what’s driving it, and is it making room in your life or slowly taking it over?

Conditional Living in a Changing Body

Many women won’t recognize themselves in an eating disorder. But they may still be waiting.

Waiting to buy clothes that fit, because this isn’t their “real” size. Avoiding photographs. Holding off on dating. Fading into the background because the woman in the mirror feels like a stranger.

That’s conditional living: I’ll get back to my life once my body gets back to normal. And because the body we’re waiting for isn’t coming back in the form we remember, the waiting can go on for years.

I know this particular waiting. I spent decades believing my real life would start once I fixed my body. I worked in intuitive eating and body acceptance, I understood the theory, and still found myself negotiating with the mirror every morning.

Menopause didn’t start that pattern. It just made it louder.

A Journal Prompt to Sit With

How much of your life are you postponing while you wait for your pre-menopause body to come back?

The clothes. The photos. The trip you haven’t booked. The feeling of being seen when you walk into a room.

Pick one thing you’ve been postponing. Then do a small version of it in the body you have right now. Not because it’s easy. Because your life is happening in this body, right now, and you’re allowed to be in it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is menorexia?

Menorexia is an informal term for disordered eating, including restriction, bingeing, compensating, and rigid food rules, that surfaces for the first time or returns during perimenopause or menopause. It isn’t a formal clinical diagnosis. Researchers describe the menopause transition as a window of vulnerability for eating disorders, comparable to puberty, because hormonal shifts, a changing body, and major life transitions tend to arrive all at once.

Are eating disorders common during menopause?

More common than most people realize. About 13 percent of women 50 and older report at least one current eating disorder symptom. A 2023 analysis estimated roughly 3.5 percent of midlife women meet full clinical criteria, with individual symptoms considerably more prevalent. Many cases go unrecognized because eating disorders are still widely associated with younger women, which is part of the problem.

How do I know if my habits are healthy or disordered?

The distinction often isn’t visible from the outside. Two people can follow identical routines for very different reasons. The questions worth asking are: what’s driving this habit, and what is it costing me? Habits that expand your life and leave room for flexibility are generally self-supporting. Habits that narrow your life, generate anxiety when disrupted, or are built around fear of your body’s natural changes deserve closer attention.

How do I stop waiting for my pre-menopause body to come back?

Start by naming what you’ve been postponing. Then choose one small step toward it this week, in the body you have right now. The pre-menopause body isn’t coming back in the form you remember, and the life that’s been on hold is happening anyway, with or without you in it.

Where can I get support for disordered eating in menopause?

The National Alliance for Eating Disorders offers a free helpline staffed by licensed therapists at 866-662-1235 (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern), and a treatment directory at findEDhelp.com. The helpline isn’t a crisis line. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988.

If You Need Support

If food, exercise, or your body are taking up more space in your life than you’d like, you deserve support from someone who specializes in this.

The helpline isn’t a crisis line. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Ready to Figure Out Your One Honest Next Step?

If you’d like help finding what you’ve been circling around, and leaving with a next step that fits your actual life, try The “What’s Next?” Self-Coaching Session. You tell it what you’ve been thinking about for months, it asks you a few thoughtful questions, and you leave with one clear direction.

It’s free. It’s private. It takes a few minutes.

Try the “What’s Next?” Self-Coaching Session →

About This Episode

Episode 135: Menopause, Body Image and Midlife Confidence

Published: September 28, 2026

Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Holly Toscanini is a coach for midlife women and host of the How to Lose the ‘WAIT’ podcast. She helps women stop postponing their lives and start trusting themselves, without waiting for everything to feel perfect first.