Does Hormone Replacement Therapy Cause Weight Gain

Increased Risk Of Gallbladder Disease

Gallbladder disease is a range of conditions that adversely affect the gallbladder and its functions. These conditions include gallbladder inflammation, gallstones, bile duct blockage, and gallbladder infection. The gallbladder is responsible for storing the bile the liver produces before it moves into the small intestine to aid in digestion. Bile is released from the gallbladder into the duodenum through the sphincter of Oddi. However, when something is causing constriction of this sphincter, the bile will stay in the gallbladder too long. This mechanism is the cause of gallstone development. Progesterone is a hormone that causes the sphincter of Oddi to relax, allowing for the normal flow of bile into the duodenum. The use of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can cause an individual to have an increased risk of gallbladder disease. This increased risk occurs because abnormally high levels of hormones such as testosterone and estrogen can cause progesterone levels to drop. This decrease can cause constriction of the sphincter of Oddi. Subsequently, bile is stored in the gallbladder for extended periods, resulting in the formation of gallstones.

Get more information on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy side effects and risks now.

What Is Hormonal Belly

In a condition in which the ovaries or adrenal glands produce too much of the male hormones, common symptoms are irregular periods, acne and unwanted weight gain, belly fat included. To avoid this, studies have been conducted to confirm the link between hormone replacement therapy and weight loss.

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Can Bioidentical Hormones Cause Weight Gain

Its clear that some bioidentical hormones can contribute to weight loss for some individuals. But what about weight gain?

Most conventional hormone medications list weight gain as a possible side effect. Without conclusive scientific evidence to the contrary, we can only assume that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy could have the same side effects and risks. However, bioidentical hormones may potentially offer opportunities to minimize unwanted weight gain that conventional hormones do not.

Minor weight fluctuations may be more likely to occur when your are just starting therapy. This is because finding the perfect medication and dose often takes time, and it can be difficult to locate the perfect sweet spot between too much and too little supplementation. Imbalance on either end can cause your weight to fluctuate. Over time, as you and your doctor monitor your symptoms, hormone levels, and weight markers, youll be able to adjust your medications appropriately to help you maintain a healthy weight. This is where bioidenticals may have an advantage over conventional hormones: bioidentical hormone replacement therapy can be customized for each patient. As such, your practitioner can precisely fine-tune a dose that helps you achieve your goals rather than having to rely on standardized doses that may not give you the results you want.

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Does Hormone Replacement Therapy Help With Weight Gain

Yes, HRT can help prevent and reverse weight gain by regulating womens estrogen levels. Estrogen plays a major role in metabolism, body weight, muscle mass, and insulin production. Falling estrogen levels can interfere with these factors to cause weight gain and difficulty with losing weight. However, women who use HRT can benefit from reduced belly fat, increased energy and metabolism, improved insulin sensitivity, and the ability to effectively maintain muscle mass all of which can help prevent weight gain.

Does It Cause Weight Gain

The only thing that causes weight gain is consuming more calories than your body burns throughout the day. Many post-menopausal women claim that HRT caused their weight gain. However, research suggests that the opposite is true.

Around the time of menopause, your body produces less estrogen. This drop in estrogen results in many side effects, including an increased appetite and apathy. Coupled with a reduced rate of testosterone production , its easy to see how women can eat more than they burn throughout the day.

Even worse, depression, anxiety, and insomnia can be triggered by low estrogen levels. Each of these on their own can lead to emotional eating, stress eating or impulsive eating.

HRT will not help you lose weight because its not a miracle weight loss drug. However, it will stabilize your mood, help you sleep better at night and manage the hormones causing your voracious appetite.

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What Is Pellet Therapy

First things first, what is pellet therapy? This treatment is a form of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy that involves an injection of custom-compounded hormones.

Your doctor will determine the specific dose thats ideal for you. During a quick doctors visit, the pellets are injected into your upper buttocks. The system will begin to take effect and youll notice a change in your symptoms within 7 to 10 days.

Menopause Diet: Foods For Menopause

A menopause diet – which involves eating the right foods for menopause – can help to ease the menopause weight gain we all experience as we reach our mid-life.

So which are the right foods for menopause?

As is correct for anyone hoping to lose weight, a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and starchy fibres, such as brown rice and wholemeal bread, is always preferable.

According to the British Nutrition Foundation, women who are post-menopausal are also at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, so keeping your heart healthy is imperative during and after the life stage. Post-menopausal women should avoid saturated fats, instead replacing them with things like olive and sunflower oils and spreads.

Oily fish should also be eaten twice a week, whilst salt intake should be kept to an absolute minimum. And of course, alcohol should not be consumed to excess – the NHS recommends no more than 14 units a week, with alcohol free days too.

To find out more about the food and supplements you should be taking during the menopause, .

But most importantly, it’s important to remember to love and accept your body as much as you can, even if you are working on improving your health in this way.

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Progesterone And Insulin Resistance

Both too much and too little progesterone can impair your bodyâs blood sugar regulation.

During a healthy pregnancy, progesterone and other hormone changes decrease the motherâs sensitivity to insulin. This insulin resistance helps elevate blood sugar levels and ensures that your body delivers enough nutrients to the growing fetus.

Without a fetus to feed, high progesterone can also cause hyperinsulinemia, meaning it increases the amount of insulin present in the blood. Too much insulin could cause your body to convert even more blood sugar for storage as fat. This is why you may have more food cravings, feel more hungry, and have a more difficult time losing weight during the luteal phase of your cycle when progesterone is highest.

However, low progesterone can also mess with your insulin response, another reason to work closely with a doctor to confirm any hormonal hunches. Low progesterone is linked to PCOS, which is associated with insulin resistance. Excess estrogen can lead to insulin resistance as well!

PCOS is complex, but it is important to clarify that weight loss wonât cure PCOS and your weight gain didnât cause it. Itâs important to monitor weight to understand the hormonal and metabolic influence, but too often doctors hyperfocus on weight and often shame women about it. PCOS causes weight gain. Addressing the factors of PCOS is what is important.

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Other Exercise Tips To Help Ensure Success

Before you begin exercising:

• Talk to your doctor about a new exercise program. Choose activities you enjoy so you’ll stick with your workouts.

• Find an exercise partner to help you stay motivated.

• Buy supportive shoes — the right ones for your activity.

• Pick a start date and start.

After you begin exercising:

• Allow at least 10 minutes to warm up before starting to exercise rigorously. To do this, choose an activity that gently works major muscles.

• Before you work out, stretch the muscles that will absorb most of the shock of your exercise routine.

• If you have any new pain while exercising, stop and let your doctor know.

• Gradually boost the distance, length, or intensity of your workout.

• Mix it up. Do different exercises to keep from getting bored and to keep your body challenged.

For the best fitness results, combine your exercise efforts with good nutrition. Here are just a few tips:

• Choose whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.

• Stay away from processed foods.

• Keep a food diary, or explore programs for your computer or apps for your cell phone, to help you watch how many calories you eat.

• Don’t eat too late in the evening.

• When you eat out, take half the serving home.

• Eat smaller amounts but more often.

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Coping With Weight Changes

You might be able to have hormone replacement therapy to control symptoms caused by low levels of sex hormones. But you cant take HRT if you are having breast cancer treatment that aims to stop the body producing sex hormones or block their action.

Changes in weight can affect your confidence and self esteem. Trying to make changes to your diet and starting or increasing exercise when you arent feeling at your best can be difficult. Treatments for cancer, including hormone treatments can cause tiredness which may make exercising more difficult. And this can add to weight gain.

Hormone symptoms, such as hot flushes and sweats, can also make it more difficult to cope. Take things one step at a time and talk to your doctor or nurse about any problems you have.

Getting To Know Ghrelin

You can think of ghrelin as your hunger hormone. Like leptin, it communicates with the brain in this case, telling your brain to eat. Every time your stomach becomes empty, it naturally releases ghrelin into your bloodstream. Ghrelin levels are lowest just after youve finished a meal. Theyre at their highest when the stomach is empty and youre ready for your next meal. This scenario is normal when a person is healthy and maintaining optimal weight.

An overweight person, on the other hand, will find that like the other hormones weve explored ghrelin levels are typically out of whack. In healthy individuals, ghrelin levels decrease in a way that satiates them and signals their brains to stop eating. But in obese individuals, ghrelin levels dont decrease enough after eating, which fails to send the brain the signal it needs to stop eating and feel satisfied.

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The Science Behind Hormones And Your Weight

It can be easy to reduce your weight to something as simple as exercise and diet, but in reality its much more complicated than that. Hormones, the chemical messengers of the body, play a major role in weight and influence everything from your appetite to where fat is stored in your body. Hormones help regulate almost all of your bodys functions, including weight.

Hormones like insulin, leptin, and cortisol all play a role in appetite, fat storage, and stress levels that can affect weight regardless of gender. However, for women, the interaction between estrogen and progesterone also play a big role. Estrogen and progesterone work in tandem and balance each other out and help maintain a healthy weight. A woman needs healthy and normal levels of estrogen and progesterone to maintain a normal weight.

Estrogen is a growth hormone that works to make your cells bigger and promotes storing energy as fat. Whether thats your breasts and hips as you go through puberty, or your uterine cells during your cycle, the impact of estrogens make your cells bigger.

Does Progesterone Cause Belly Fat

Although progesterone doesnt cause belly fat, one of the side effects of progesterone can be weight gain. As we age, hormonal disruptions like progesterone levels dropping faster than estrogen levels can impact belly fat too. Visceral fat, body fat found in the abdominal cavity, can be associated with insulin resistance, which can be closely tied to progesterone levels.

As you can see, progesterone plays an important role in many functions in your body. Understanding its role and how it interacts with other hormones can help you understand the role between progesterone and weight fluctuations.

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Understanding The Benefits And Risks

Recent findings show that although not completely risk-free, HRT remains the most effective solution for helping with symptoms of menopause and is also effective for the prevention of osteoporosis. It may also provide protection against heart disease.

When deciding whether to have hormone replacement therapy , it is also important to understand the risks.

You may have heard about a link between breast cancer and HRT. Guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence say that HRT is effective and recommend that it should be offered to women with menopausal symptoms.

How To Maximize The Benefits Of Hrt

Its essential to note that HRT isnt a miracle drug. Your hormone replacement drugs arent going to counteract a diet thats high in calories and low in nutrients. HRT wont dramatically increase your metabolism so that you can lose weight without even trying.

You have to combine HRT with a healthy diet and active lifestyle to obtain the maximum benefits. Make sure that youre consuming ample protein, and avoid processed carbohydrates.

Not sure if your portions are in line with your needs? Consider meeting with a dietician who can help you understand the size of a healthy portion. They can also offer guidance about your caloric and macronutrient needs.

Many women struggle with exercising enough as they get older. They might feel tired and experience an overall decrease in energy.

Look for small ways to add additional movement to your day. A short walk a few times a day adds up. If you arent already, add strength training to your exercise regimen.

Women tend to lose muscle mass as they get older, in part due to their decrease in activity. As you lose muscle mass, your metabolism will decrease. Per pound, muscle burns more calories than fat.

Strength training helps you retain your muscle mass. Aim to strength train at least a few times a week.

Dont feel like youre restricted to lighter weights. Heavier weights are much more effective at increasing your amount of muscle.

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How Exercise Helps With Weight After Menopause

The more active you are, the less weight you’re likely to gain. A National Institutes of Health review showed that people who did aerobic activities every day for 10 or more minutes had 6 fewer inches around the waistline compared to people who didn’t exercise. And exercising while you’re in the process of losing weight — as well as after you’ve lost it — may be critical to maintaining weight loss.

Hormone Replacement May Fight Belly Fat Study Says

Hormone replacement may prevent belly fat in postmenopausal women

The effects last only as long as the woman is on hormones

If youre a woman of a certain age, you might have wondered: Where did this belly fat come from? Youre eating and exercising no differently than you did before menopause struck, but suddenly, your tummy has ballooned.

Welcome to life without estrogen.

Preclinical data has shown that either surgical menopause or declines in estrogen accelerates fat accumulation, primarily visceral or abdominal fat, said Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of the North American Menopause Society. Changes over time in how women look such as noticing more abdominal fat, having increases in waist size, pants no longer fitting in the waist or increases in breast size all may be signs.

Unfortunately, that extra fat can be life-threatening.

A body fat percentage of 35% or more for postmenopausal women means a higher risk of obesity-related heart and diabetes risks, Pinkerton explained, including higher total and LDL cholesterol and insulin resistance.

To combat those health risks, women are encouraged to eat healthy, watch their weight and exercise. Now, there may be another weapon in the arsenal: menopausal hormone therapy.

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Hormone Replacement Therapy And Its Possible Role In Weight Gain

Estrogen or a combination of estrogen and progesterone often constitutes HRT. Let us examine the impact of these two hormones on weight. In theory, progesterone is acknowledged to contribute to fat storage and perhaps increase appetite, while estrogen is known to cause water retention. With these suppositions, it can be concluded that the intake of both progesterone and estrogen can cause weight gain. However, this has not yet been proven in many studies. Let is take a look at one of these studies probing into the relationship between hormone replacement therapy and weight gain.

Bioidentical Hormones: An Introduction

Bioidentical hormones have been building towards mass production ever since their inception in the 1930’s. They are now widely used as a treatment for symptoms of menopause.

These miracle hormones are produced in a laboratory. Extracts are taken from plants and engineered to replicate the hormones found in your body. They can be made up of lots of different hormones, like estriol, estrone, testosterone, and progesterone. Read on to learn about how bioidentical hormones work.

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What Is The Best Hormonal Imbalance Treatment

While synthetic hormone replacement therapy has long been used to treat hormonal imbalance symptoms, Dr. Christy prefers the more efficient and natural benefits of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy in the form of BioTE® pellets. Rather than using artificial hormone compounds, BHRT contains plant-based hormones that are structurally designed to mimic the bodys natural hormones. This allows for more efficient absorption and symptom control. Furthermore, the unique BioTE pellet delivery system offers a constant dose of hormones in order to avoid upswings and downswings in a patients symptoms.