Most women gain up to 1.5 pounds each year during menopause, which can last up to a decade. This weight gain can lead to a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and it is correlated with more hot flashes and night sweats, according to the Times. To combat this, more patients are picking up Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and other glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists.
“We’re getting requests daily,” Stephanie Faubion, MD, medical director for the Menopause Society and director of the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Women’s Health, told the Times.
The Menopause Society recommends weight loss as nonhormonal treatment for menopausal women, but amid the uptick in off-label GLP-1 prescriptions, physicians are raising concerns about the long-term effects. One of the big questions is whether these drugs could exacerbate a studied side effect: the loss of muscle mass and bone density that’s common with menopause.
Daniela Hurtado, MD, PhD, an endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, monitors her menopausal patients who take semaglutide, such as Ozempic or Wegovy, for differences in bone density and muscle mass.
“I don’t want them to become so frail that they are going to fall in the winter and break a hip,” Dr. Hurtado told the Times.
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