Combination of obesity medication tirzepatide and menopause hormone therapy fuels weight loss

(Press-News.org) SAN FRANCISCO—Using tirzepatide and menopause hormone therapy at the same time leads to increased weight loss in postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity compared to use of tirzepatide treatment alone, according to a study being presented Saturday at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

“These data are the first to show the combined use of tirzepatide and menopause hormone therapy significantly increases treatment effectiveness in postmenopausal women,” said Regina Castaneda, M.D., research fellow for the Division of Endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. “Previous studies of the medication semaglutide found similar results. Achieving these outcomes with a second obesity medication may indicate a broader efficacy trend for pairing these two classes of medications.”  

Menopause-related hormonal changes often result in increased abdominal fat, decreased muscle mass and altered energy expenditure that leads to weight gain and puts millions of women at risk for developing heart disease and other serious health issues.

To confirm the hypothesis that concurrent menopause hormone therapy enhances the effectiveness of tirzepatide for weight loss in postmenopausal women, researchers conducted a real-world study using the electronic medical records of 120 postmenopausal women over a median duration of 18 months. The study included two cohorts: 40 women using menopause hormone therapy concurrently with tirzepatide and 80 women using tirzepatide alone.

The results showed superior total body weight loss percentage for women using tirzepatide plus menopause hormone therapy (17%) compared to those using tirzepatide alone (14%). In addition, a higher percentage of menopause hormone therapy users (45%) also achieved at least 20% total body weight loss, compared to 18% of menopause hormone therapy non-users.

“The information garnered through this new study provides important insights to develop more effective and personalized weight management interventions to reduce a postmenopausal woman’s risk of overweight and obesity-related health complications,” said Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and consultant for the Division of Endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic. “This study underscores the urgent need for further research to better understand how obesity medications and menopause hormone therapy work together. Gaining this knowledge could greatly improve the health and well-being of millions of postmenopausal women. It also points to the need for better strategies to make these treatments more accessible and available to those who need them.”

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Bridging Interdisciplinary Careers in Women’s Health Research Grant and the Mayo Clinic Center for Women's Health Research.

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