Why Everything Feels Inflamed in Perimenopause (It’s Not Just Hormones)
If perimenopause has made your body feel like it’s suddenly reacting to everything—foods, stress, exercise, heat, sleep—you’re not imagining it. And no, this isn’t because you “failed” menopause.
For people with sensitive or hypermobile bodies, midlife is often the moment when inflammation stops being quiet and starts being… very noticeable.
Let’s talk about why that happens—and what actually helps.
Inflammation in Bendy Bodies Looks Different
Hypermobility isn’t just about flexible joints. It reflects widespread connective tissue differences that affect the gut, blood vessels, skin, fascia, and more. This is a whole-body system, not a single problem area.
When that system is stressed, symptoms don’t arrive one at a time. They tend to show up as clusters:
pain plus GI symptoms
fatigue plus flushing
headaches plus sleep disruption
On a cellular level, hypermobile bodies show differences in connective tissue regulation and immune signaling. That doesn’t mean your body is broken. It means your system is more reactive to physiologic stress.
Translation: when inflammation shows up everywhere at once, that’s not chaos—it’s a pattern.
Why Perimenopause Shrinks Your Tolerance Window
Estrogen does far more than regulate cycles. It influences blood vessel tone, immune signaling, nervous system buffering, and mast cell behavior.
Perimenopause isn’t defined by a smooth estrogen decline. It’s defined by fluctuation. And biologically, fluctuation is often more destabilizing than steady low levels.
This phase is increasingly understood as a systemic inflammatory transition, with rising inflammatory signaling and less hormonal buffering. The result is a smaller margin for stress.
Nothing new is “wrong.”
Your buffer just got thinner.
Estrogen, Mast Cells, and the Suddenly Reactive Body
This part is often misunderstood.
Estrogen is not always mast-cell calming. Estradiol can directly activate mast cells and trigger degranulation, releasing histamine and other inflammatory mediators.
That means perimenopause can feel uniquely chaotic—not because estrogen is low, but because it’s unstable.
Hormonal swings can lead to:
flushing without fever
food reactions that don’t follow clear rules
symptom “waves” rather than steady inflammation
There’s significant overlap between hypermobility, dysautonomia (including POTS), and mast-cell–mediated symptoms. Not everyone has mast cell activation syndrome—but many people live somewhere on that spectrum.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not imagining it.
Why “Anti-Inflammatory Everything” Can Backfire
When symptoms flare, it’s tempting to clamp down: eliminate more foods, add more supplements, optimize harder.
But for sensitive systems, over-restriction is itself a stressor.
Highly restrictive diets raise stress hormones and increase physiologic strain. Constantly trying to “fix” the body can keep the nervous system on high alert—exactly what we’re trying to calm.
Here’s the gentle truth:
In bendy bodies, stability often reduces inflammation more effectively than restriction.
Yes, that’s frustrating. Also true.
What Actually Helps (Before You Chase Treatments)
Before layering in medications or complex protocols, many people do better by focusing on calming the system as a whole.
Start with predictability:
consistent sleep and wake times
regular meals
gentle, repeatable movement
Predictability reduces background stress and helps the nervous system feel safer.
Next, support nervous system regulation:
prioritize steady routines over intensity
choose movement that feels rhythmic, not depleting
allow real recovery between demands
You don’t need to “relax harder.” You need fewer surprises.
Finally, remember:
movement can reduce inflammation when it’s appropriately dosed
overdoing it can worsen pain and reactivity
delayed crashes are a sign of overload, not weakness
The goal here isn’t elimination or perfection.
It’s tolerance.
Treatments work better when the nervous system is steadier.
Quick Start: A Gentle, Time-Limited Experiment
If histamine-type symptoms are prominent—flushing, food reactions, headaches, GI flares—it can be reasonable to learn about high-histamine foods and try a short experiment.
How to do this without turning it into a lifestyle overhaul:
Familiarize yourself with common high-histamine and histamine-liberating foods
Trial a low-histamine approach for 1–2 weeks only, using this clear, clinician-developed Johns Hopkins guide
Focus on freshness, adequacy, and awareness—not perfection
Notice patterns rather than enforcing rules
If symptoms improve, that’s useful information.If they don’t, that’s also useful information.
This is about data, not discipline.
How This Fits Into the Bigger Pattern
Inflammation in bendy menopause rarely exists alone. It often overlaps with:
dysautonomia
connective tissue instability
mast-cell reactivity
nervous system sensitivity
Treating inflammation by itself rarely resolves the full picture, because these systems are deeply interconnected.
This isn’t about finding the fix.
It’s about sequencing support wisely.
Next Step: Identify Your Dominant Driver
You don’t need to diagnose yourself—but it is helpful to know which system is driving symptoms most right now.
👉Take the “Your Bendy Menopause Type” quiz
Find out whether inflammation is your primary driver—or part of a larger bendy menopause pattern.
Bottom line
If everything feels inflamed, your body isn’t failing.
It’s asking—politely but persistently—for steadier, smarter support.
References
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Transcriptome-Wide Expression Profiling in Skin Fibroblasts of Patients With Joint Hypermobility Syndrome. Chiarelli N et al. PLoS One. 2016;11(8):e0161347.
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AGA Clinical Practice Update on GI Manifestations in hEDS/HSD. Aziz Q et al. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 2025;23(8):1291-1302.
Bidirectional Associations Between Autonomic Activity and Inflammation. Hu MX et al. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2018;80(5):475-482.
Neuroimmune Communication in Health and Disease. Reardon C et al. Physiological Reviews. 2018;98(4):2287-2316.
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