Study Links Hormone Therapy to Added Weight Loss With Semaglutide

For midlife women being treated for overweight or obesity, using hormone therapy at the same time as semaglutide appears to be linked with greater weight loss, according to research presented at the annual meeting of The Menopause Society in San Diego.

Regina Castaneda, M.D., of Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville, and colleagues looked at whether weight loss with semaglutide or tirzepatide differed between midlife women aged 45 and older with a body mass index of at least 27 kg/m² who were using hormone therapy and those who were not. The team used nearest-neighbor propensity score matching to reduce confounding.

The semaglutide group included 2,379 women, with 793 using hormone therapy and 1,586 not using it. The tirzepatide group included 1,476 women, with 492 in the hormone therapy group and 984 in the nonuse group. In the semaglutide group, hormone therapy use was tied to significantly greater total body weight loss starting at nine months, when weight loss reached 9.8 percent versus 8.2 percent without hormone therapy. The difference remained at 12 months, 15 months, and the last follow-up, and women using hormone therapy were also more likely to reach 10 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent, and 30 percent total body weight loss.

In the tirzepatide group, hormone therapy use was associated with slightly greater weight loss at three months and a higher share of women reaching at least 5 percent total body weight loss at the last follow-up. However, the differences were not significant at later time points or for higher weight-loss goals.

"This study highlights the importance of considering menopause-specific factors when developing personalized approaches to weight management for midlife women," Stephanie Faubion, M.D., medical director for The Menopause Society, said in a statement.