If you've been doing everything right on a GLP-1 and still feel like the scale moves more slowly than it did in your thirties, you're not imagining it. Weight after menopause is genuinely harder to shift — and a study published in 2026 offers an interesting clue about why, and about one thing that seems to help.
What the study found
Researchers at Mayo Clinic looked back at 120 postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity who took tirzepatide for at least a year. The women who were also using menopause hormone therapy lost noticeably more weight — about a third more, on average — than the women taking tirzepatide alone. Those on hormone therapy also saw better cardiometabolic markers over the same period. The findings were published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health.
Why this is plausible
The drop in estrogen around menopause is linked to shifts in where the body stores fat, how it handles blood sugar, and how easily muscle is maintained. It's reasonable to think that steadying those hormones could make it easier for a medication like tirzepatide to do its job. That's a mechanism worth studying — but a plausible mechanism is not the same as proof.
The honest caveat
This was a retrospective, observational study: the researchers looked back at women who had already made their own choices about hormone therapy. Women who choose hormone therapy may differ in other ways — access to care, other health habits, how closely they're followed — that also affect weight. The authors are clear that randomized trials are needed before anyone can say hormone therapy causes better results. So treat this as a promising signal, not a prescription.
What to actually do with this
Please don't read this as "start hormone therapy to lose more weight." Hormone therapy has real benefits for many women and real considerations for others, and it deserves a decision made on its own merits with a clinician who knows your history.
What the study is good for is widening the conversation. If you're a woman over 35 weighing a GLP-1, it's worth talking about the whole midlife picture — sleep, hot flashes, mood, bone and heart health, and yes, hormones — rather than treating weight as a problem that lives on its own. The providers worth choosing are the ones who'll have that fuller conversation with you. That's exactly the kind of women's-health depth we weigh in our Care Standard.