Yes, your body still produces hormones after menopause. The ovaries dramatically slow down, but they don’t shut off completely, and other tissues step in to pick up some of the work. What changes is the amount of each hormone, where it’s made, and which type of estrogen dominates. Understanding these shifts helps explain why your body feels different and what you can do about it.
What Happens to Estrogen
Before menopause, your ovaries are the primary source of estradiol, the most potent form of estrogen. Premenopausal levels typically range from 10 to 300 pg/mL depending on where you are in your cycle. After menopause, estradiol drops below 10 pg/mL. That’s a steep decline, but it’s not zero.
The bigger shift is in which type of estrogen your body relies on. After menopause, estrone replaces estradiol as your dominant estrogen. Estrone is weaker than estradiol, but your body produces it through a different pathway: fat tissue, skin, bone, and even the brain contain an enzyme called aromatase that converts adrenal hormones into estrone. Your peripheral tissues then convert some of that estrone into small amounts of estradiol.
This process increases with body weight and age. In women with more body fat, aromatase activity can produce enough circulating estrogen to have real biological effects. In some cases, this peripheral estrogen production is significant enough to stimulate the uterine lining, which is why some postmenopausal women experience unexpected spotting. It’s also why body composition plays a role in how intensely you experience certain menopausal symptoms.
Testosterone and Other Androgens
Your ovaries and adrenal glands both produce testosterone before menopause, and both continue producing it afterward. Testosterone doesn’t drop off a cliff at menopause the way estrogen does. Instead, it declines gradually over the course of your adult life. Many postmenopausal women still have measurable testosterone levels, though lower than in their 20s or 30s.
The adrenal glands also produce DHEA and its related form DHEAS, which are the most abundant sex steroids in women at any age. These hormones act as raw material: your tissues can convert them locally into both testosterone and estrogen depending on what’s needed. DHEA levels do decline with age, but the adrenals keep producing it well past menopause, providing a steady reservoir of precursor hormones that your cells can draw on.
What Happens to Progesterone
Progesterone takes the hardest hit. Before menopause, your ovaries produce progesterone after ovulation each month. Once ovulation stops permanently, that major source disappears. The adrenal glands make small amounts of progesterone, but levels drop to a fraction of what they were during your reproductive years. For most postmenopausal women, progesterone is functionally very low.
How Lower Hormones Affect Your Body
The decline in estrogen drives most of the physical changes women notice after menopause. Bone loss accelerates to 1 to 5% per year during the first five to seven years, because estrogen plays a direct role in maintaining bone density. This is why osteoporosis risk climbs sharply in the postmenopausal years.
Lower estrogen also reshapes your vaginal and urinary health in ways that tend to get worse over time, not better. During your reproductive years, estrogen keeps the vaginal lining thick and well-supplied with blood. It also supports a population of beneficial bacteria that produce lactic acid, keeping vaginal pH between 3.5 and 5.0. This acidic environment protects against both vaginal and urinary tract infections.
After menopause, the vaginal lining thins, secretions decrease, and pH rises above 5.0. The protective bacteria decline. These changes increase the risk of infections, dryness, irritation, and urinary symptoms like urgency or recurrent UTIs. Unlike hot flashes, which often improve over time, these tissue changes tend to be progressive. About half of postmenopausal women experience them to some degree.
Where Your Remaining Hormones Come From
Think of postmenopausal hormone production as decentralized. Instead of the ovaries acting as a central factory, smaller sites throughout your body take over partial production:
- Fat tissue and skin are the primary sites for converting adrenal hormones into estrone through aromatase activity.
- Adrenal glands continue producing DHEA, DHEAS, small amounts of testosterone, and trace progesterone.
- Bone cells contain aromatase and can produce local estrogen that helps maintain bone tissue.
- Brain tissue also contains aromatase and produces small amounts of estrogen locally, which plays a role in neurological function.
This distributed production means your body is still hormonally active. It’s just operating at much lower levels, and the estrogen being made in these tissues often acts locally rather than circulating throughout the bloodstream the way ovarian estrogen did.
Hormone Therapy After Menopause
Because your body still makes some hormones, the question of whether to supplement them is genuinely individual. Hormone therapy remains the most effective treatment for hot flashes and the vaginal and urinary changes of menopause, and it prevents bone loss.
For women under 60, or within 10 years of their final period, the benefit-to-risk ratio is generally favorable for treating bothersome symptoms. For women who start hormone therapy more than 10 years after menopause or after age 60, the risks of cardiovascular problems and blood clots increase, making the decision more nuanced.
For vaginal and urinary symptoms specifically, low-dose vaginal estrogen is a targeted option. It promotes regrowth of the vaginal lining, restores normal pH, and increases lubrication without meaningfully raising estrogen levels in the rest of your body. Vaginal DHEA works through a similar local mechanism, letting your tissues convert the precursor hormone into estrogen right where it’s needed.
The Hormonal Signals That Increase
Not every hormone drops after menopause. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) actually rise sharply. These are the brain hormones that previously told your ovaries to produce estrogen and release eggs. When the ovaries stop responding, the brain keeps sending louder and louder signals. FSH levels above roughly 23 to 40 IU/L (depending on the lab and population) are one of the markers clinicians use to confirm menopausal status.
Elevated FSH is part of what drives hot flashes and night sweats, particularly in the early postmenopausal years. Over time, the brain adjusts to the new hormonal baseline, which is one reason vasomotor symptoms often ease after several years.