Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hormone therapy can play an essential role in preventing weight gain in women going through menopause and in women who have passed menopause. Hormone therapy alone won’t do all the work of keeping off and taking off extra pounds, but it can make a critical difference in your weight loss success.
It’s Normal for Women to Gain Weight Around Menopause
Many women start gaining weight about the time they go into menopause. It’s unusual for weight gain to be less than 4 pounds (about 2 kg), and it’s not uncommon for weight gain to be as much as 15 pounds (about 7 kg).
The weight women gain at menopause comes on as belly fat, the more dangerous form of fat that presses down the abdominal organs. Even women who were overweight in a typically female pattern, with hip and thigh fat, gain added pounds at menopause in the form of belly fat.
Women don’t gain weight at menopause just because they overeat. There is usually a transient condition called hyperphagia early in menopause when appetite is stronger and active 24 hours a day. But it’s a matter of fat cells calling out “Feed me! Feed me!” rather than losing control and overeating.
Also, women gain weight around menopause because their bodies aren’t making as much estrogen as they were once making. Estrogen drives vital metabolic processes in a woman’s body that influence activity, metabolic rate, and fat storage. One of the essential benefits of estrogen is one of the most often overlooked.
Estrogen Fights Inflammation
Women who are achy and tired have to muster extra willpower to get up and out to get the needed exercise to burn calories. Good intentions take us only so far. It’s only natural not to exercise when you feel bad. And one of the reasons women generally feel unwell during menopause is inflammation.
Estrogen drives the conversion of healthy fats in plant foods into the building blocks of the hormones that control inflammation. Plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acids like ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) don’t come in a form that the body can use to regulate inflammatory processes. ALA becomes anti-inflammatory DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) only in the presence of estrogen. Without estrogen, a woman’s body (or a man’s) can’t make the hormones that keep inflammation in check from healthy plant fats.
In theory, getting DHA from microalgae and getting the EPA from fish and fish oil can compensate for estrogen deficiency. But these supplements only work when women also reduce their consumption of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids from other kinds of fats.
Timely Estrogen Replacement Therapy Fights Pain
When women go through menopause, their bodies lose the ability to regulate inflammation. Unfortunately, that’s not all that goes on. Reduced estrogen levels also increase a woman’s sensitivity to pain.
Nerves that go out to every extremity of the body send pain signals back to the brain with a compound called Neuropeptide Y. As estrogen levels decrease, a gland in the brain called the hypothalamus generates more Neuropeptide Y. Hence, pain becomes “more painful.”
However, the body has a way of neutralizing Neuropeptide Y. Eating more and raising blood sugar levels lowers Neuropeptide Y. But women experience more inflammation. Still, they feel less pain after they gain a few pounds or more than a few pounds. Early intervention with estrogen replacement therapy can circumvent this process.
Timely Estrogen Replacement Therapy Fights Excess Appetite
The third way menopause causes weight gain is a phenomenon known as leptin insensitivity. Leptin is a hormone your fat cells and the lining of your intestines make to send a message to your brain: “OK, we have had enough.”
When a woman’s hypothalamus starts making more Neuropeptide Y, the brain becomes less sensitive to leptin. It is a natural defense mechanism against pain. Your brain will stop the pain if you eat more. But this is also a natural reaction to menopause that doesn’t have to happen when women get estrogen replacement therapy before they start gaining weight.
Stop Menopause-Related Weight Gain with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
There are two things every woman needs to know about stopping weight gain from menopause with hormone therapy:
- It’s always better to get treatment sooner rather than later. It’s better never to gain weight than to have to lose it.
- But if you have already gained belly fat due to menopause, bioidentical hormone therapy helps stop the pain that drives the need for extra food.
Bioidentical hormones perform precisely the same function as natural hormones without the risk of hormone therapy side effects. Learn more about bioidentical hormone replacement from Renew Health & Wellness. Call us this week to schedule an appointment.
Sources:
- https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2017/june/obesity-and-weight-management-at-menopause/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11753591/
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180531131116.htm
- https://womenshealth.obgyn.msu.edu/blog/joint-relief-estrogen
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22281161/
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/endocrinology/news/weight-gain-in-women-at-midlife-unique-issues-in-management-and-the-role-of-menopausal-hormone-therapy/mac-20431465
Hormone therapy can play an essential role in preventing weight gain in women going through menopause and in women who have passed menopause. Hormone therapy alone won’t do all the work of keeping off and taking off extra pounds, but it can make a critical difference in your weight loss success.
It’s Normal for Women to Gain Weight Around Menopause
Many women start gaining weight about the time they go into menopause. It’s unusual for weight gain to be less than 4 pounds (about 2 kg), and it’s not uncommon for weight gain to be as much as 15 pounds (about 7 kg).
The weight women gain at menopause comes on as belly fat, the more dangerous form of fat that presses down the abdominal organs. Even women who were overweight in a typically female pattern, with hip and thigh fat, gain added pounds at menopause in the form of belly fat.
Women don’t gain weight at menopause just because they overeat. There is usually a transient condition called hyperphagia early in menopause when appetite is stronger and active 24 hours a day. But it’s a matter of fat cells calling out “Feed me! Feed me!” rather than losing control and overeating.
Also, women gain weight around menopause because their bodies aren’t making as much estrogen as they were once making. Estrogen drives vital metabolic processes in a woman’s body that influence activity, metabolic rate, and fat storage. One of the essential benefits of estrogen is one of the most often overlooked.
Estrogen Fights Inflammation
Women who are achy and tired have to muster extra willpower to get up and out to get the needed exercise to burn calories. Good intentions take us only so far. It’s only natural not to exercise when you feel bad. And one of the reasons women generally feel unwell during menopause is inflammation.
Estrogen drives the conversion of healthy fats in plant foods into the building blocks of the hormones that control inflammation. Plant-based omega-3 essential fatty acids like ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) don’t come in a form that the body can use to regulate inflammatory processes. ALA becomes anti-inflammatory DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) only in the presence of estrogen. Without estrogen, a woman’s body (or a man’s) can’t make the hormones that keep inflammation in check from healthy plant fats.
In theory, getting DHA from microalgae and getting the EPA from fish and fish oil can compensate for estrogen deficiency. But these supplements only work when women also reduce their consumption of pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids from other kinds of fats.
Timely Estrogen Replacement Therapy Fights Pain
When women go through menopause, their bodies lose the ability to regulate inflammation. Unfortunately, that’s not all that goes on. Reduced estrogen levels also increase a woman’s sensitivity to pain.
Nerves that go out to every extremity of the body send pain signals back to the brain with a compound called Neuropeptide Y. As estrogen levels decrease, a gland in the brain called the hypothalamus generates more Neuropeptide Y. Hence, pain becomes “more painful.”
However, the body has a way of neutralizing Neuropeptide Y. Eating more and raising blood sugar levels lowers Neuropeptide Y. But women experience more inflammation. Still, they feel less pain after they gain a few pounds or more than a few pounds. Early intervention with estrogen replacement therapy can circumvent this process.
Timely Estrogen Replacement Therapy Fights Excess Appetite
The third way menopause causes weight gain is a phenomenon known as leptin insensitivity. Leptin is a hormone your fat cells and the lining of your intestines make to send a message to your brain: “OK, we have had enough.”
When a woman’s hypothalamus starts making more Neuropeptide Y, the brain becomes less sensitive to leptin. It is a natural defense mechanism against pain. Your brain will stop the pain if you eat more. But this is also a natural reaction to menopause that doesn’t have to happen when women get estrogen replacement therapy before they start gaining weight.
Stop Menopause-Related Weight Gain with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy
There are two things every woman needs to know about stopping weight gain from menopause with hormone therapy:
- It’s always better to get treatment sooner rather than later. It’s better never to gain weight than to have to lose it.
- But if you have already gained belly fat due to menopause, bioidentical hormone therapy helps stop the pain that drives the need for extra food.
Bioidentical hormones perform precisely the same function as natural hormones without the risk of hormone therapy side effects. Learn more about bioidentical hormone replacement from Renew Health & Wellness. Call us this week to schedule an appointment.
Sources:
https://www.racgp.org.au/afp/2017/june/obesity-and-weight-management-at-menopause/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11753591/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180531131116.htm
https://womenshealth.obgyn.msu.edu/blog/joint-relief-estrogen
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22281161/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/endocrinology/news/weight-gain-in-women-at-midlife-unique-issues-in-management-and-the-role-of-menopausal-hormone-therapy/mac-20431465
