Description:

Medical Alumni Association | Webinar: Critical Windows: How Life Transitions Shape Women’s Obesity Risk | Webinar
Thursday, August 14, 2025 | 12–1 p.m. CDT

The Northwestern University Medical Alumni Association invites you to a virtual event featuring Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, FAHA. Women face unique weight-related challenges throughout their lives, with certain life stages creating particularly vulnerable periods for weight gain. This talk explores how major transitions—from puberty through pregnancy, menopause, and beyond—create “critical windows” that significantly influence long-term obesity risk. Drawing on cutting-edge epidemiological research, we’ll examine how hormonal fluctuations during these transitions interact with psychological stressors, relationship changes, and social expectations to impact women’s weight trajectories. Beyond biology, we’ll explore how structural factors—from workplace policies to healthcare access—either support or undermine women’s weight management efforts across different life stages. The presentation will address the pervasive weight stigma women face and how it compounds during vulnerable periods, while examining how lifestyle factors like sleep, physical activity, and eating patterns shift with life’s demands. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, we’ll discuss evidence-based strategies tailored specifically to women’s unique physiological and social realities. 

Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of why traditional weight management approaches often fail women and discover more effective, life-stage-appropriate interventions that acknowledge the complex interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors shaping women’s weight health throughout their lives.

Advance registration is required.