WEDNESDAY, Oct. 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hormone therapy for menopause might actually boost the weight-loss benefits of drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound, a new study says.
Middle-aged women taking hormone therapy to manage hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause wound up achieving greater weight loss from GLP-1 drugs, according to research slated for presentation Thursday at the annual meeting of the Menopause Society.
The research involved about 3,900 women, with nearly 2,400 taking semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and nearly 1,500 taking tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound), making it one of the largest studies examining the link between GLP-1 drugs and hormone therapy, investigators said.
“We are seeing a consistent signal,” said lead researcher Dr. Regina Castaneda, a postdoctoral fellow with Mayo Clinic Florida.
“Our earlier, smaller studies showed an association between hormone therapy use and greater weight loss in postmenopausal women, and the fact that we see the same signal in a larger, independent cohort should not be overlooked,” she said in a news release.
Researchers followed women taking semaglutide for about 26 months and those taking tirzepatide for about 16, comparing weight loss based on whether they also were on hormone therapy for menopause.
All the women in the study were 45 or older, with an average age of 57, and had a BMI that placed them in the overweight-to-obese category, researchers said. (BMI, or body-mass index, is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.)
Results showed that hormone therapy and semaglutide taken together produced consistently better weight-loss results.
For example, at one year of follow-up women taking both hormone therapy and semaglutide had lost about 11% of their total body weight on average, versus 9.5% for those on semaglutide alone.
Further, more women taking semaglutide and hormone therapy were likely to achieve a greater weight loss goal for themselves.
About 22% of women on the combo lost 20% or more of their body weight, compared to 18% of those on semaglutide alone. Likewise, 6% of combo users lost 30% or more body weight, compared to 4% of semaglutide-only patients.
Tirzepatide also produced better benefits when taken with hormone therapy, but not as much as semaglutide — modestly greater weight loss was seen at three months of follow-up (6.6% versus 5.9%) and a higher proportion achieved 5% or better total body weight loss (88% versus 84%).
“Interestingly, the effect was stronger with semaglutide than with tirzepatide, which deserves further study and may point to an interaction specific to GLP-1 signaling,” Castaneda said.
Semaglutide only contains medication that works on the body’s GLP-1 receptors, while tirzepatide is a dual-action drug that works on two sets of receptors, GIP and GLP-1.
It makes sense that hormone therapy might have this boost effect, “given preclinical data suggesting a potential synergistic effect between estrogen and GLP-1 signaling,” Castaneda said.
However, more research is needed to prove and better understand this link, she said.
“These findings need to be confirmed in adequately designed prospective trials, and it's important to remember that weight loss is not an indication for menopause hormone therapy,” Castaneda said.
The Menopause Society noted that middle-aged women commonly experience weight gain resulting from menopause, and have turned to GLP-1 drugs for help. About 1 in 5 women 50 to 64 are or have used a GLP-1 medication, more than any other group in the U.S.
“Weight gain and changes in body composition are among the most common and frustrating concerns women experience during the menopause transition,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society.
“These findings suggest that hormone therapy may influence how some women respond to GLP-1-based weight loss medications,” she said in a news release. “Although more research is needed, this study highlights the importance of considering menopause-specific factors when developing personalized approaches to weight management for midlife women.”
The annual meeting of The Menopause Society runs through Saturday in San Diego.
Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
More information
Stanford Medicine has more on GLP-1 drugs.
SOURCE: The Menopause Society, news release, Oct. 20, 2026
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