Research
Hormonal
Estrogen hormone therapy in postmenopausal women reduces fat mass and improves body composition without significantly changing total body weight or BMI.
If considering hormone therapy for menopause symptoms, do not avoid it due to fear of weight gain. Clinical data shows it does not increase total body weight or BMI and may improve body composition. Discuss benefits for metabolic health with your provider.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
According to a Cochrane meta-analysis (Norman et al., 2000), unopposed estrogen treatment had no significant effect on total weight... or BMI... Thus, the fear of some women that estrogenic HT leads to weight gain (Légaré et al., 2000) is unfounded. Rather, the likelihood of beneficial changes in body composition and metabolic health with estrogenic HT should be considered...
Why this rating
Based on a Cochrane meta-analysis of multiple RCTs.
Source
Ovarian hormones and obesity
Brigitte Leeners et al. · Human Reproduction Update · 2016
DOI 10.1093/humupd/dmw045
systematic_reviewCited 402×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Estrogen levels are inversely associated with adiposity in premenopausal women, with higher estradiol levels found in healthy-weight women compared to obese women, suggesting a role for estrogens in restraining adipose tissue accumulation.Good
- Menopause increases total body fat mass and decreases fat-free mass, leading to a shift toward visceral adiposity, without significantly changing total body weight or BMI.Good
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