Taking a Weight-Loss Medicine? Should You Ask About Hormones?

Should menopause be part of the weight-treatment conversation?

Yes. Tell your prescriber about hot flashes, night sweats, sleep problems, and any menopause treatment you use. Those details belong in the same appointment as your weight progress and side effects.

The harder question is whether adding hormones makes a weight-loss medicine work better. One study raises that possibility. It does not settle the question.

What did the study actually find?

Mayo Clinic researchers studied 120 women after menopause who had taken tirzepatide for at least 12 months. Tirzepatide is the medicine in Zepbound and Mounjaro. The study was published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health on January 22, 2026.

At the last recorded follow-up, women using menopause hormone therapy had lost an average of 19.2% of their starting weight. Women who were not using it had lost an average of 14.0%.

That is a difference of 5.2 percentage points. Both groups lost weight. These averages are not a promise about what adding hormones would do for you.

Did hormones cause the extra weight loss?

We do not know. The researchers compared women with similar characteristics, but other differences could still explain part of the result.

For example, the Mayo team suggested that relief from menopause symptoms might help some women sleep better or stay more active. Women using hormone therapy might also have had different health habits to begin with. The study could not separate all of those possibilities.

A trial that randomly assigns treatment would give a clearer answer. The findings here concern hormone therapy that acts throughout the body; they do not show that vaginal estrogen produces the same result.

Should I start hormones to lose more weight?

This study alone is not a reason to do that. Menopause hormone therapy can be an option for bothersome symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats. Whether it fits you depends on your symptoms, health history, and the treatment’s benefits and risks.

If symptoms are disrupting your life, bring them up even if your weight medicine is working. If your weight progress is disappointing, tell your prescriber that too. You deserve a review of both concerns.

Do not add hormones or change either medicine based on this finding alone.

Bring the whole plan to one appointment.

Write down your medicine names and doses, how long you have taken them, what has improved, and what is still difficult. Include menopause symptoms and any side effects that make eating, drinking, sleeping, or moving harder.

Bring your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and relevant pregnancy history into the conversation too. More pounds lost does not automatically tell us how your heart health or strength has changed.

The goal is a plan you can live well with: symptom relief, useful progress, and enough strength for the life you want to keep living.