Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
Combining hormone therapy (HT) with semaglutide leads to significantly greater and sustained weight loss in midlife women, a large real-world study found. Women on both treatments lost about 2% more body weight than those on semaglutide alone, with benefits persisting through 15+ months. The effect was less pronounced with tirzepatide, possibly because that drug already produces higher weight loss on its own.
A large retrospective cohort study presented at The Menopause Society's annual meeting found that menopausal women taking semaglutide alongside hormone therapy (HT) lost significantly more weight than those on semaglutide alone — and the benefit held up over time. Researchers from Mayo Clinic analyzed real-world EHR data from over 3,800 midlife women (age 45+, BMI ≥27) using either semaglutide or tirzepatide for at least 12 months.
For semaglutide users, concurrent HT was associated with meaningfully greater total body weight loss starting at 9 months and persisting through the full follow-up period. The tirzepatide group showed only a modest early advantage with HT that faded at later timepoints — possibly because tirzepatide's stronger standalone efficacy leaves less room for HT to add benefit.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: With millions of midlife women turning to GLP-1 medications for weight management, these findings suggest that hormonal status may meaningfully influence treatment response. Experts stress that HT should not be prescribed solely for weight loss, but clinicians should factor in a patient's reproductive stage and menopausal symptoms when personalizing obesity treatment plans.
