Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women — not breast cancer. And the changes that raise that risk don't start at menopause. They start in perimenopause, quietly, while you're busy managing hot flashes and brain fog. Your LDL is rising. Your arteries are beginning to stiffen. Your blood pressure is creeping up. A landmark March 2026 JAMA Cardiology study confirms this is the window to act. Here's the science, what it means for your body right now, and what the

Up to 54% of perimenopausal women experience heart palpitations — the skips, flutters, and racing pulses that arrive without warning and produce some of the most acute anxiety of the entire hormonal transition. For most women, the EKG is completely normal. But the symptom is real, and so is the mechanism: estrogen has receptors inside the heart's electrical conduction system. When it fluctuates in perimenopause, the electrical system misfires. Here's the full science — and th