Can GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Help With Menopausal Weight Gain?
Women's HealthMenopause

Can GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Help Treat Menopause-Related Weight Gain?

Can GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Help Treat Menopause-Related Weight Gain?
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Updated on October 06, 2026
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Weight gain is a common occurrence during menopause — and often an unwelcome one. The extra pounds, which usually appear around the belly, can be especially hard to shed.

Fortunately, the new wave of weight loss drugs — including semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound), and orforglipron (Foundayo) — may be helpful for some women with unwanted menopause-related weight gain.

“I see a lot of women in this phase of life who have worked out and been healthy their whole lives and are frustrated with the weight gain they’re experiencing now,” says Disha Narang, MD, an endocrinologist and the director of obesity medicine at Endeavor Health in Skokie, Illinois. “Starting medication is not a failure.”

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What Causes Menopausal Weight Gain?

Women tend to notice some weight gain starting in the years leading up to menopause, a period called perimenopause. It’s common for a woman to gain about 1.5 pounds each year in her fifties.

 However, this midlife weight gain isn’t necessarily always driven by menopause alone. Chronological aging is an important factor in overall weight gain, while menopause tends to influence body composition.

Menopause causes a significant and permanent shift in hormones. This altered hormone ratio is why menopausal weight gain usually collects around the belly, says Joanne Dushay, MD, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

“That type of central distribution of body fat is associated with your body being less responsive to insulin, and that can contribute to trouble with weight loss,” she says. Female sex hormones, such as estrogen, also protect against insulin resistance; when menopause leads to declining estrogen levels, weight gain often follows, and the risk of conditions such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome rises.

At the same time, energy expenditure tends to fall in midlife largely because of a loss of calorie-burning muscle mass, rather than a broad age-related “slowing” of metabolism.

 Research suggests that basal metabolic rate, adjusted for weight, remains relatively stable from about age 20 until about 60. Preserving muscle is therefore central to preserving energy expenditure.

Can Tirzepatide and Semaglutide Help With Menopausal Weight Gain?

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), including semaglutide, tirzepatide, and orforglipron, can be highly effective weight loss treatments. These drugs, particularly semaglutide and tirzepatide, help people lose weight in several ways, primarily by suppressing the appetite and slowing intestinal transit.

 GLP-1s don’t work for everybody, but most users who are overweight or have obesity find themselves eating less food and shedding pounds.
Though many postmenopausal women have taken part in large GLP-1 weight loss trials, very few studies have concentrated on how the drugs affect them in particular. One 2024 analysis of about 100 postmenopausal women found that semaglutide drove significant weight loss and improvement in cardiovascular risk factors; the benefits were even stronger for the subset of women who were receiving hormone therapy for menopause.

A 2026 study found that the daily oral GLP-1 medication orforglipron was associated with significant decreases in weight and waist circumference. This result was consistent across all life stages, from premenopause to postmenopause.

GLP-1 drugs help reduce fat mass all over the body — including the belly fat that is so common in menopause. They “definitely result in decreased abdominal/visceral fat,” says Dr. Dushay. GLP-1s are also known to directly improve insulin resistance, which could potentially combat some of the effects of menopause’s hormonal changes.

To put it simply, there’s no reason to suspect that GLP-1s would be any less effective for women at this stage of life than they are for anyone else: “I wouldn’t say there is a physiological argument for postmenopausal women responding in a less robust way to GLP-1 agonists,” says Dushay.

At the same time, Dushay cautions that postmenopausal women using a new GLP-1 drug shouldn’t necessarily expect extraordinary weight loss. “I would say the postmenopausal women I treat are not typically super responders,” she says.

GLP-1 Drugs and Risks for Postmenopausal Women

Older women have a few extra factors to consider when they begin taking a GLP-1 drug.

Dushay says that some users need to be particularly careful about bone and muscle loss while taking a GLP-1. Body composition changes with age — muscle mass and bone density tend to peak in our thirties, after which they steadily decline. Menopause accelerates these declines. The loss of muscle mass and bone density associated with menopause can lead to both sarcopenia (serious muscle loss) and osteoporosis (fragile bones).

Dr. Narang says that when a person loses a substantial amount of weight, they don’t just lose fat — they also lose muscle and bone mass. Weight loss drugs, therefore, can exacerbate the natural muscle and bone density loss in postmenopausal women.

“You have to take active steps to maintain your muscle mass as you age,” Dushay says. “That is especially true with a medication such as a GLP-1 agonist that has the potential to cause significant and at times rapid weight loss.”

“Something we emphasize with medical weight management is the importance of resistance exercise,” Narang says. Adding weight training or body-weight exercises to your workout routine as you age is important for everyone, especially for people who use weight loss drugs. Eating enough protein can help preserve lean muscle mass too.

“At the end of the day, the medication is just a resource, and the lifestyle aspect — exercising and eating well — is incredibly important to sustain over time,” she says.

Dive into our GLP-1 resource center for stories on weight loss, medications, side effects, and more.

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. The Reality of Menopause and Weight Gain. Mayo Clinic. July 8, 2023.
  2. Hurtado MD et al. Weight Gain in Midlife Women. Current Obesity Reports. February 28, 2024.
  3. New Meta-Analysis Shows That Hormone Therapy Can Significantly Reduce Insulin Resistance. The Menopause Society. September 3, 2024.
  4. Pontzer H et al. Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science. August 13, 2021.
  5. Medaris A. A New Era of Weight Loss: Mental Health Effects of GLP-1 Drugs. American Psychological Association. July 1, 2025.
  6. New diabetes pill orforglipron achieves uniform weight loss for women of all ages. News-Medical.Net. September 28, 2026.
  7. Hurtado M et al. Weight Loss Response to Semaglutide in Postmenopausal Women With and Without Hormone Therapy Use. Menopause. April 1, 2024.
  8. Ngabea MA et al. GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Inflammatory Pathway Modulation: Dual Targeting of Metabolic and Immune Dysfunction in Insulin Resistance. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. October 16, 2025.
  9. Wright VJ et al. The Musculoskeletal Syndrome of Menopause. Climacteric. July 30, 2024.
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Weight gain is a common occurrence during menopause — and often an unwelcome one. The extra pounds, which usually appear around the belly, can be especially hard to shed.

But there’s good news for women who are battling their own menopausal weight gain. The new wave of injectable weight loss drugs — including semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) — may help some women fight against unwanted menopause weight gain.

“I see a lot of women in this phase of life who have worked out and been healthy their whole lives and are frustrated with the weight gain they’re experiencing now,” says Disha Narang, MD, an endocrinologist and the director of obesity medicine at Endeavor Health in Skokie, Illinois. “Starting medication is not a failure.”