Magnesium for Menopause: Benefits, Options, Types, Side Effects, and More

Menopause can feel like your health goes down a spiral, from bone health to metabolism and mood swings. It gets worse when solutions that used to work no longer work and you feel like everything is getting brushed off as due to hormones or aging. 

Fortunately, nutrition and integrative medicine can deliver a lot of sustainable improvements in your health, physique, and well-being. In this article, we’ll discuss the roles of magnesium during menopause.

Why Is Magnesium Beneficial for Menopause?

Magnesium is essential for over 300 biochemical reactions in your body. Many of these are involved in:

• Hormone production, function, and breakdown
• Insulin response and blood sugar uptake
• Bone turnover, or the balance of bone building and breakdown that help build strong bones. Magnesium is a key ingredient in building bones along with calcium, collagen, and other micro-minerals.
• Energy production from food and metabolism
• Blood vessel tone and blood pressure regulation
• Stress response and stress recovery
• Neurotransmitter production, brain function, and mood
• Restorative sleep

Sensibly, if you’re deficient in magnesium, any of these areas could become compromised. During menopause, when your body adjusts to the drop in estrogen, a magnesium deficiency will compound and worsen these struggles. 

In developed countries, frank magnesium deficiencies where you don’t even meet the bare minimum affect 50 – 80% of the population. Most women get about 240 mg of magnesium daily. This is about two-thirds of the daily recommended intake of 320 mg/day, which is the bare minimum for healthy and non-deficient individuals.

To make matters worse, estrogen naturally enhances magnesium use, absorption, and uptake into your tissues and bones. When estrogen drops during menopause, your tissues and bones can become even more deficient in magnesium. 

If you’ve been deficient for years, sticking to the RDI dose could be like trying to fill up an empty pool with a spoon–it will take a long time. Several clinical trials have shown that exceeding the magnesium RDI, especially with a deficiency and low estrogen, is typically safe and beneficial. 

By understanding and addressing magnesium’s role, you can better maintain your health during this pivotal stage of life.

How Does Magnesium Help With Specific Menopause Struggles?

Did you know that hot flashes, suboptimal sleep, mood swings, and declining bone health could become worse with a magnesium deficiency?. While magnesium may not take away all menopause symptoms and health concerns, correcting a magnesium deficiency can be very helpful.

Let’s dive into how magnesium addresses these challenges.  

Weight Gain and Belly Fat

Are you noticing more belly fat and weight changes as you transition through menopause? You’re not alone. Many women experience shifts in where their body stores fat during midlife, particularly around the abdomen. This change is linked to aging and a decline in estrogen levels during menopause. 

Menopause itself may not directly cause significant weight gain, but it does influence where the body stores fat, leading to a greater accumulation of central body fat. The belly fat helps produce some estrogen to replace some of the estrogen that your ovaries stop producing. 

This partly explains why the diet and exercise that used to work when you were younger doesn’t seem to touch the belly fat. However, too much midsection fat is associated with several health risks.

Magnesium plays a critical role in maintaining a healthy weight and fat distribution. It’s an essential mineral for:

• The metabolism of food and stored fat into energy
• Glucose metabolism and insulin response
• Stress response, which could influence midsection fat and overall hormone balance
• The production of progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone
• Thyroid hormone axis

Therefore, it makes sense that magnesium deficiencies could be linked to unwanted weight gain and difficulty losing weight. Furthermore, maintaining adequate magnesium levels can support your overall body’s energy management, which is vital during the menopausal transition.

In a recent 8-week study, 74 healthy but slightly overweight middle-aged women took 250 mg of magnesium oxide daily. By the end of the study, these women had experienced a notable increase in muscle mass (1.6%) and a decrease in body fat (3.8%). These changes were not observed in the placebo group. 

A 2021 meta-analysis examined 32 clinical trials that tested the effects of magnesium (48 – 450 mg/day) on weight and midsection fat with a combined 2551 participants. They found that magnesium supplementation could significantly reduce BMI in all participants, and weight and waist circumference in women. In this meta-analysis, magnesium’s effect on waist circumference was small (1 cm), but was statistically significant.

Most magnesium studies used magnesium oxide, which is significantly less absorbed than all forms of magnesium in Magnesium Breakthrough. This suggests that Magnesium Breakthrough can work faster and better just by being better absorbed.

Therefore, daily magnesium supplementation supports overall weight loss efforts in combination with nutrition and exercise.

Interestingly, studies find that obesity can make menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats worse. Beyond physical health, weight management can significantly improve your well-being.

Incorporating magnesium into your diet or considering supplementation could be a supportive step in managing weight and improving your health during this phase of life. It’s not just about the numbers on the scale; it’s about supporting your body’s needs and enhancing your well-being during menopause.

Hot Flashes

Hot flashes are one of the most common noticeable and impactful symptoms of menopause. It’s a sudden wave of heat, accompanied by sweating and perhaps even chills and anxiety.

Hot flashes occur due to the body’s response to decreasing estrogen levels, but the process is complex, involving your body’s internal thermostat. When a hot flash strikes, your body expands the blood vessels close to your skin to get rid of extra heat. This is coupled with increased sweating, the body’s natural way of cooling itself, which can lead to sudden and intense overheating.

Magnesium helps regulate nerve and muscle function, which are integral to how your body manages its internal thermostat. 

By supporting vasodilation and the nervous system’s response to temperature changes, magnesium can partly help manage the frequency and intensity of hot flashes. 

In an initial pilot study, 25 menopausal women who were battling troublesome hot flashes received oral magnesium oxide. The treatment began at 400 mg, with increases to 800 mg as needed throughout the four-week period.

Encouragingly, over half the participants reported a reduction in their hot flash scores by more than 50%, considering both how often and how severe the flashes were. This stage of the trial, which did not involve a placebo group, saw all subjects receiving the supplement, and they welcomed the treatment. 

These promising results suggest that oral magnesium might be a well-tolerated and effective option for women facing these particular menopausal challenges.

Yet, a subsequent placebo-controlled study offered a contrasting view. In this trial, postmenopausal women with significant hot flashes were split into groups. They received either 800 mg or 1200 mg of magnesium oxide daily, or a placebo, in carefully measured ratios.

Despite the pilot study’s optimistic outcomes, this more rigorous research didn’t back up the earlier success. Hot flash scores, including their frequency and intensity, showed no significant difference between the magnesium and placebo groups during the study.

Thus, further research is necessary to conclusively determine magnesium’s effectiveness in mitigating hot flashes across diverse populations and dosages. It’s possible that:

• Magnesium may help with hot flashes in some women but not others. We need more research to find out why or what factors make magnesium helpful for hot flashes. 
• A better-absorbed magnesium supplement or even at a higher dose would show clearer results. Clinical studies found that about 4 – 23% of magnesium oxide is absorbed in the gut.

Occasional Sleep Struggles

Sleep disturbances are a common challenge during menopause. As hormone levels fluctuate, so too does the quality of sleep, often disrupted by hot flashes, mood changes, and other physiological changes.

These sleep difficulties are not just about feeling tired–they can profoundly impact your quality of life, mood, productivity, and even your physical health. Interestingly, Caucasian women experience more frequent awakenings compared to Hispanic women, though the overall effect of ethnicity on menopausal sleep disturbances is minimal.

Many people find magnesium a powerful sleep quality enhancer. Supplementation with magnesium can improve several subjective and objective sleep measures, especially in menopausal women. Magnesium helps with sleep by interacting with various sleep-regulating hormones and neurotransmitters, including:

• Melatonin is your circadian hormone that promotes sleep. Magnesium helps maintain healthy levels of melatonin by preventing a decrease in its concentration. 
• Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is your relaxation neurotransmitter that supports sleep.  

Magnesium binds to GABA receptors which results in relaxation and sleep. 

• N–methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) is an excitatory neurotransmitter that regulates sleep and wake. Magnesium inhibits NMDA receptors, calming the nervous system and aiding muscle relaxation into sleep.
• Cortisol is a stress hormone. It can interfere with sleep when levels are too high. Magnesium supplementation helps lower cortisol levels, making it easier to fall asleep.
• Serotonin N-acetyltransferase is critical for the synthesis of melatonin. Magnesium enhances the activity of this enzyme, thereby boosting melatonin production and supporting sleep induction.
• Renin is a hormone active during sleep and involved in the regulation of blood pressure and electrolyte balance. Magnesium increases renin levels, supporting its role during the sleep cycle and potentially enhancing sleep quality.

In a placebo-controlled trial of 46 elderly with sleep problems, participants received 500 mg of magnesium daily for eight weeks. This supplementation led to notable improvements in sleep for the magnesium group compared to those receiving a placebo. The group supplemented with magnesium experienced: 

• Quicker sleep onset
• Increased sleep efficiency 
• Enhanced overall sleep quality 

Additionally, the magnesium group tested higher levels of melatonin, a key hormone in regulating sleep cycles. Despite these positive changes, the overall sleep duration did not differ significantly between the two groups. Consequently, magnesium supplementation proved to be an effective method for enhancing sleep quality in the elderly.

Thus, magnesium supplementation emerges as a beneficial approach for managing sleep disturbances commonly associated with menopause. By improving sleep onset, efficiency, and enhancing the regulation of sleep hormones like melatonin, magnesium offers a promising natural solution for those seeking to improve their sleep quality and, by extension, their overall well-being during this challenging phase.

Brain Health, Mood Swings, and Cognitive Function

Every woman’s brain is full of estrogen receptors, so menopause can profoundly impact the brain. For example, less estrogen for your brain means it can take up less glucose for fuel and start preferring fats and ketones. 

Estrogen also regulates many neurotransmitter functions, including glutamate, serotonin, and dopamine. Remember, also, that hot flashes start in your brain, where your body’s thermostat is. So, it’s never been more important to take care of your brain and feed it what it needs.

Not surprisingly, mood swings and brain fog are very common during menopause. These can range from occasional anxiety and irritability to profound sadness. The mental health struggles could worsen with hot flashes, sleep issues, and midlife stressors like money, career change, health, relationships, and empty nest syndrome. All of these go hand in hand with occasional forgetfulness and foggy thinking.

Magnesium is far from a cure-all, but can be tremendously helpful by:

1. Keeping your nervous system and stress response balanced. Therefore, maintaining optimal magnesium status may help moderate these responses and provide a more stable emotional state.
2. Supporting emotions and sleep by regulating brain chemicals essential for regulating sleep and mood. Here’s a closer look at these brain chemicals: 

• GABA: Mood swings in some women may be linked to activity at the GABA receptor. Magnesium can help stabilize moods by increasing the availability of GABA .
• Cortisol: Elevated cortisol levels are observed in individuals with mood swings. Magnesium significantly reduces serum cortisol levels, helping to moderate mood fluctuations.
• Catecholamines: These neurotransmitters are directly correlated with mood swings. Magnesium is known to block the release of catecholamines, thus aiding mood stabilization.   

3. Working as a key mineral for mitochondrial function. The mitochondria produce energy, especially from fat, for your brain. Healthy mitochondrial function is crucial for mood and mental clarity. 

A clinical trial involving 126 adults with mild-to-moderate mood swings evaluated whether magnesium chloride could improve emotional states. The trial compared 6 weeks of active treatment (248 mg of elemental magnesium per day) with 6 weeks of no treatment. The study demonstrated that magnesium quickly and effectively improves mood swings in adults. It is also well tolerated without the need for close monitoring due to its low toxicity risk.

A National Health and Nutrition Survey examined 2466 adults 60 and older. They found that higher total magnesium intake (>311 mg/day) independently correlated with less cognitive impairment, especially when it comes to memory and attention. These participants tend to be caucasian with sufficient vitamin D, suggesting that magnesium works with vitamin D for brain health. 

If you experience mood swings and brain fog during menopause, increasing magnesium intake through supplementation and food can be helpful. Some women may experience immediate improvement, while others need additional interventions.

Bone Health

During menopause, you want to do everything you can to maintain the bone density you have. Most public health messages focus on calcium and vitamin D, even though magnesium is equally important.

Did you know that magnesium is a key building block of your bones? Up to 60% of magnesium in your body is in your bones. Beyond that, magnesium also:

1. Helps stabilize the bones
2. Is vital for DNA and protein production involved in constructing healthy bone tissues 
3. Helps with the absorption and metabolism of calcium, another key player in bone strength.
4. Supporting healthy bone turnover. Osteoblasts are cells that build bones, osteoclasts are cells that break down and resorb bones. You need both in balance for healthy and pliable bones. By stimulating osteoblast activity, magnesium promotes the building of new bone tissue. At the same time, it keeps osteoclast functions in balance. This dual action makes magnesium crucial for bone health, especially during menopause.

Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency is relatively common during menopause and can contribute to weaker bones. Adequate magnesium intake is associated with better bone density and overall bone health. Postmenopausal women who ensure sufficient magnesium intake can maintain better bone density.

Interestingly, there are racial differences in magnesium processing, which might be influenced by genetic factors, suggesting that individual needs for magnesium can vary. Supplementing your diet with magnesium could be a straightforward and effective way to support your bone health during menopause. 

A small clinical trial evaluated twenty postmenopausal women with bone health concerns. Ten received 1,830 mg magnesium citrate (~300 mg elemental magnesium) daily for 30 days, while the other ten received no supplementation as a control group.

After thirty days of taking magnesium, the results were quite promising. The women who took the supplement saw significant improvements in their bone health. Their test results showed lower bone breakdown and higher bone formation markers, meaning their bones were staying stronger.

These positive changes were notably different from the control group of women who didn’t take the supplement and didn’t see such improvements.

Therefore, full-spectrum and well-absorbed magnesium like Magnesium Breakthrough should be part of every menopausal woman’s bone health toolkit.

Hormone Balance

Hormonal balance is crucial during menopause, a period marked by significant fluctuations that affect everything from sleep patterns to the frequency of hot flashes. As women transition towards menopause, progesterone levels decline more rapidly than estrogen, leading to estrogen dominance. This imbalance can exacerbate menopausal symptoms and contribute to increased health risks. 

Most cases of estrogen dominance relate to lower estrogen detoxification and stress. Magnesium helps with this by:

• Working as a key cofactor in liver estrogen detoxification
• Supporting healthy stress response and stress resilience 

Many menopausal women also struggle with thyroid health, which can contribute to energy and weight issues. Magnesium is a key cofactor in thyroid hormone synthesis and is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions, many of which are crucial for hormone regulation. 

In a case-controlled study, lower serum magnesium correlated with higher thyroid stimulating hormone, a marker of low thyroid hormone function.

In a four-week study, fifteen male college students took 500 mg of magnesium daily, split into two doses. Before and after the supplementation period, the study measured levels of important hormones and markers of inflammation.

The results showed a significant reduction in cortisol and IL-6, indicating that magnesium supports a balanced stress and inflammatory response.

Additionally, testosterone also increased relative to cortisol, suggesting an improvement in hormonal balance.

Menopausal women are not male college students. However, it demonstrates the effects of magnesium on specific hormones. Also, ample clinical evidence confirms that magnesium supplementation helps with menopausal well-being, suggesting its role in hormone balance.

Which Magnesium Is Best for Menopause?

Exploring the variety of magnesium supplements available can be daunting, but understanding which forms are most beneficial for menopause can help you make an informed choice. Here are some of the most beneficial magnesium supplements that can help you throughout menopause. 

How to Choose the Best Magnesium for Menopause:

1. Well-absorbed into various tissues. To learn more about magnesium bioavailability, read this in-depth article.
2. Gentle on the gut and easy to tolerate at high doses, making it easier to correct a long-term magnesium deficiency
3. Contains many organic salt forms that provide other health benefits, such as glycinate, malate, taurate, and orotate
4. Doesn’t require you to swallow 10 capsules to get the optimal dose. Most organic forms of magnesium have 10 – 17% of magnesium by weight, so you may need up to 3000 – 5000 mg to even get 300 – 400 mg daily. This means very big or very, very many capsules.

Best Forms of Magnesium for Menopause

Magnesium citrate is known for its bioavailability, which means it is easily absorbed by your body. This form is particularly useful if you’re looking to support your metabolic health and manage weight-related issues, as it helps with blood vessel health in overweight individuals.

Magnesium bisglycinate (also called magnesium glycinate) is favored for its calming effects on the body and mind. It is gentle on the stomach and is an excellent choice if you have a sensitive gut. It helps especially with everyday stress and sleep.

Magnesium malate is celebrated for its high bioavailability and energy-boosting properties. Naturally found in fruits, this form of magnesium is popular for promoting vitality and may help those feeling unusually tired or dealing with daily stresses.

Magnesium chelate is another highly absorbable form, often recommended for its role in muscle building and recovery. If you’re active and looking to maintain or build muscles as you age, this form of magnesium can be particularly beneficial.

Magnesium taurate is great for cardiovascular benefits. This form is often chosen by those looking to support heart health, as it helps maintain normal blood pressure levels and heart function.

Sucrosomial magnesium is one of the best-absorbed magnesium around. A small clinical trial shows that it can get absorbed into red blood cells (and thus other cells) better than magnesium glycinate.

Magnesium orotate is preferred for its metabolic benefits. It’s particularly favored by athletes and those looking to enhance energy levels and recovery, but it’s also beneficial for anyone looking to support heart and metabolic health during menopause.

When choosing a magnesium supplement, it’s essential to consider the unique benefits of different forms and how they target various tissues and functions. Each type of magnesium can support specific health needs, from heart health to bone strength and mental well-being. Combining different forms of magnesium can offer a broader range of benefits, enhancing absorption and utilization by the body to optimize effectiveness

Magnesium Breakthrough contains a full spectrum of 7 magnesium (and 8 for our drinkable powder). This means you can reap the various benefits of magnesium supplements for menopause. Also, only 2 small capsules or 1 scoop will meet the RDA. 

How Much Magnesium to Take for Menopause

Most public health recommendations suggest recommended daily intakes of 310 – 320 mg daily, including for menopausal women. However, most adults don’t meet this number for years, which can result in long-term frank magnesium deficiencies. 

Many of our physician colleagues recommend higher dosages than the RDA for severe deficiencies. The main adverse effects of excess magnesium intake in healthy people are diarrhea, nausea, and stomach upset. However, these are less of an issue with organic forms of magnesium like glycinate and orotate.

Lower magnesium absorption during menopause may also increase your daily needs. Clinical trials have reported doses up to 3,000 mg daily with no reported adverse events.

Like vitamin D, how much magnesium you should take should depend on an objective test, such as a red blood cell magnesium test. Every woman has different needs, tolerance, and absorptive capacity for magnesium, and the goal should be to achieve replenishment of your magnesium level as fast as can be done safely, not to stay below an arbitrary number. 

So, we often recommend our clients to slowly increase magnesium doses, tracking their bodily responses over weeks, and finding their bowel tolerance. Then, stay at bowel tolerance for a few months before retesting their red blood cell magnesium. 

Remember, this approach is not for everyone. Also, medications and health issues affect your magnesium needs, so you should always check with your doctor before introducing any supplements. Also, high-dose supplementation of anything should warrant medical supervision. 

What has your experience been with magnesium during menopause? Have you noticed changes in how you feel after adjusting your intake? Share your stories in the comments below—we’d love to hear about your journey and any tips you might have!