r/LadiesHRTwithGLP1

Hi! Sorry if this has already posted but I searched and couldn't find a lot of answers with my specific issue...It seems like my tirzepatide interferes with estradiol benefits. This is my second go round with trying tirzepatide for both inflammation and weight loss. I stopped the first attempt after my hair began to fall out (despite adequate protein, calories). My labs showed major dip in estrogen during this time with coincides with urologic symptoms and hair loss, both indications of low estrogen for me. I am trying again with tirzepatide, just going slower and lower doses along with making sure I bump up my estrogen too. So far, so good except NO weight loss! A definite improvement with inflammation but I would love to increase tirzepatide without worrying I am going to go bald and pee my pants!! lol

Anyone find a workaround or similar experiences? I am currently on .05 estradiol patches but going to be switching to estradiol injections and on 1 mg tirz compound 2x a week.

For those of you using or who tried microdoses (less than 2.5), how long did you stick with that dose if your body didn’t respond? I’ve heard to stick with a dose for a month before deciding to bump up, but is that time frame reduced if you’re microdosing? Would love to hear others’ experiences.

Hi, I posted a month or so ago in a Zepbound subreddit, thought I'd follow up here to see if anyone else has experienced this and what results have been.

Have been on HRT for about ten years, since onset of menopause. Zepbound for about 1.5 years. Shortly after moving up to 7.5 mg on Zepbound (about 2 months ago) I had some spotting that was light but lasted about a week. Immediately went through testing: pap and other labs, and biopsy were all negative, but biopsy showed benign polyp. GYN said endometrium seemed to be thin and normal for post-menopause. Had follow-up ultrasound and got contradictory results -- doc said thick endometrium and suspicious amount of blood flow to uterus. He didn't want to say cancer (hallmark of which is that tumors attract blood to sustain them), said it could possibly be the polyp. So now I'm going in for a D&C with additional biopsy, removal of polyp, and scan.

Has anyone else had post-menopausal bleeding? If yes, what were your tests/results and overall experience like? GLP1's cause so many bizarre symptoms, I'm wondering if it's possible this could be related. Really hoping that's the case, or that it's just the benign polyp.

What combination of things is working well for you right now?

Hi everyone — I’m currently on day 14 of Wegovy at the starting dose of 1.5 mg daily and I’m feeling really discouraged because I haven’t lost not even 1 ounce.
I know it’s still early, but I guess I expected to see something by now, especially because I’ve heard so many people say they had appetite changes or early weight loss right away.
For context, I’m really only looking to lose about 15–20 pounds. My eating and exercise routine has pretty much stayed the same as it was before starting. I already eat fairly healthy and I work out consistently — I usually do weekday workouts with strength training/legs and walking or light cardio. I’m not suddenly eating more, and I don’t feel like I’m doing anything differently that would explain zero movement on the scale.
One thing I should mention is that I recently increased my estrogen dose as part of my HRT/perimenopause treatment, so I’m wondering if that could be causing water retention, bloating, or just masking any early loss. I’ve definitely noticed more belly bloat since increasing estrogen, so maybe that’s part of it?
Has anyone else experienced no weight loss at all in the first couple of weeks and then had it kick in later? Or is this a sign that I might be one of the people who just doesn’t respond to Wegovy?
I’m trying not to panic, but it’s frustrating when you’re doing all the things and hoping this will finally help with the stubborn perimenopause weight. Would love to hear from anyone who had a slow start, especially if you were also on HRT or dealing with estrogen changes.

Hi Folks, I need some perspective from women who’ve navigated weight loss with both GLP-1s and HRT at the same time, because I genuinely can’t tell if I’m being impatient or if something in my protocol needs adjusting.

My stats:
5’5”, 46 years old, postmenopausal

HW: 203 lbs

CW: 195 lbs

Weight when starting Zepbound: 203 lbs (mid-April)

Current weight: 195 lbs

GW: 140 lbs

Timeline:
Started Zepbound and HRT (estradiol patch, progesterone, testosterone cream) at the same time in mid-April

Currently on 5mg Zepbound (just started 5mg a week ago)

Lost 10 lbs in about 10 weeks on 2.5mg and gained a few.

My hormone labs if helpful context:
Estradiol: 36 pg/mL (still below typical therapeutic range)

FSH: 49.3, down from 136 at diagnosis

Total testosterone: 23.4 (target range 40-70)

Free testosterone: flagged out of range, low

SHBG: 86.3 — high, possibly binding up testosterone

I know logically that 9 lbs in 10 weeks isn’t nothing, and I know HRT and Zepbound together are doing a lot of work behind the scenes I can’t fully see on the scale. But watching others post 20-30 lb losses in similar timeframes has me wondering:

Has anyone else dealt with slow loss specifically because of low estradiol or high SHBG?

Did your weight loss speed up once your hormones got properly dialed in?

Anyone have experience with testosterone not converting well due to SHBG and how that affected your results?

Is 9 lbs in 10 weeks on 2.5mg actually normal, or should I be pushing my doctor harder?

I have a follow-up appointment in July to adjust my estradiol and testosterone doses. Just trying to figure out if I should expect things to pick up once that happens, or if I need to be more aggressive about protein/exercise/dose increases in the meantime.
Thank you for any honest feedback. Happy for the encouragement but also want the real talk if I’m missing something.

New here 🙂 I've read through a lot of these threads and have found a lot of helpful information, but I'm a little overwhelmed.

41, started HRT 18 months ago after suffering a mental breakdown, later attributed to undiagnosed PMDD. Highly sensitive to any changes in hormones, but specifically estrogen.

Have been on one spray of estrogen, 200mg of micronised progesterone, Slynd birth control (to suppress cycle) and 20mg escitalopram daily for the last 6 months.

The combination of progesterone, escitalopram (lexapro) and general peri has had a significant effect on my weight and I have put on nearly 40lbs in that time.

I'm feeling a lot more mentally stable, but the weight gain and inability to maintain or even lose weight, despite eating well and moving my body is depressing me. Frightened to add in a GLP-1 in case I upset the balance.

Has anyone had a similar experience with mental health/PMDD and had success with GLP-1's. Would be so grateful for any advice.

I’m only 10 pounds overweight but I’ve had drastic body shifts. I have this visceral fat in my gut that sticks out. And love handles. And back fat. I hate it. And I’m not even 40 yet. I take Wegovy and it doesn’t help. Did reta help you?

I am 59 and have been in HRT for about four years now. I went on after menopause due to poor sleep, joint pain, hair loss, and weight gain. It helped me with the first two symptoms. I started at .05 mg and after pushing my gynecologist very hard eventually she agreed I could bump up to .075 mg to see if I got more relief. It did help me even more with symptoms 1 and 2 though not the other two. A year ago I went on a glp one and lost 50 lbs. Once I had lost about 15 percent of my starting weight I started having bad sleep again, especially waking up a lot and too early for the day. I also started getting frequent UTIs which was not typical for me. I went to a urologist who had me increase the frequency of my estrogen vaginal cream and that has helped. The sleep has continued to be a problem. I went back to my gynecologist asking to be put on .1 mg and got a lot of pushback. She kept saying, that’s the maximum dose, I don’t like to do that. She doubled my progesterone from 100 to 200 which didn’t really help since my issue is not falling asleep, it’s staying asleep and not waking up too early. I went back and said look I have lost 50 lbs, that must be affecting my estrogen, I really want to go up. She offered me to switch to daily gel and stay at my current dose. I said I didn’t want to do that because I had read it can make your mood fluctuate and I have a history of depression so I don’t want to risk being less stable. At that point she finally relented and let me go up to .1 mg but it was such a fight. When I read this sub it seems like there are people whose drs have them to .1 mg or higher without a fight. Are these online drs? Is my dr out of the norm? It’s been really frustrating, I feel like I’m asking her for heroin. 😂 everything I’ve read about my sleep pattern suggests it deteriorated due to weight loss and I needed more estrogen not more progesterone. She is certified with the North American menopause society, I was hoping for more enlightened care, unless I’m wrong and it’s really hard to convince a dr to increase your dose.

I took my first dose and had a weird reaction. Wondering if this is normal and if I should try again or stop. I also have a message into the doctor but haven't heard back. I got dizzy, which subsided after some time but then that night I had really bad insomnia. Anyone else?

So I'll start off by saying that I am in early perimenopause, on HRT(estrogen and progesterone). I started a compounded women's dose of testosterone cream about 3 months ago because my levels were pretty much non existent. However a month ago I stopped because my hair was starting to fall out, which is something that can apparently happen with transdermal delivery. I don't know if they are correlated but around this time my steady weekly 1-2lb loss just completely halted and I've been bouncing around 233-240 all this month. I know some of it is water weight as I dropped 5lbs one night but then now I'm 2lbs heavier again

As far as diet, I've actually been under eating as I also recently went up to 15mg and my appetite has been pretty low. I have been making an effort to eat more this past week though. I have been exercising more, have a pool and swim several times per week at a minimum of one hour but usually two and the other day I got around 12k steps. I have been in more pain this past month too.. its like all the pain relief Zep provided just vanished.

My appetite and food noise is still well controlled, so the medication is working.. this is just my first real stall. Since I am at 21% lost I'm a bit freaked out due to this being the average lost in trials. Just don't really know what to do. Hide my scale for a while and check back in another month? 😅 *Also nothing that I am 90lbs down total from my heaviest(65lbs) since starting Zep)

I'm wondering if HRT would help with this. The last month or 2, I've noticed that I just don't feel joyful about anything anymore. I really feel like I've lost my "spark." I'm a lot more emotional, feeling like I want to cry at random things even when it's not right before my period. Mainly the last couple years I've been more irritable so this is a really noticeable change. I'm 45 now and my doctor tried me on progesterone to help with the irritability in spring 2025 but it just made me tired. There was a lot going on then though, my mother in law died unexpectedly and I was helping to care for someone that had back surgery.

I've been on Zepbound since August 2025 and this lack of joy/happiness/spark just started maybe April of 2026 so I don't think it's the loss of pleasure side effect that people talk about. I'm microdosing 1.25 now. I haven't had as much energy as usual since beginning it so my doctor started giving me a 30mg (I believe it is, not 100% sure the dose) testosterone shot in December which I'm not really sure has helped. The higher dose gave me really bad anxiety and this is the lowest dose. I don't know if I'm depressed, I already take Wellbutrin for anxiety/depression and I have for decades. I don't know if I should make an appointment to talk to my doctor about trying progesterone again, I know I don't want an SSRI, just looking for feedback on if HRT would help for this. Thanks!

Hello, I’m a 52 year old post menopausal woman. I’ve been on HRT for 3 years now (through Defy Telehealth) and feel like I’m pretty well dialed in there. I started a low dose of GLP-1 about 6 months ago to help with some stubborn meno weight gain, food noise & inflammation. I’ve lost about 10 pounds (which was the goal) and now just micro dosing. I feel pretty good overall but the HRT has not helped much with mood. It’s not really depression, maybe some anxiety with a whole lot of irritability over the smallest things. This is very much out of character for me but since I started peri menopause, the irritability and lack of patience seems like it’s getting worse by the day and really affecting my marriage and relationships. I have the kindest and most supportive and patient husband but even just him blinking hard can send me into a rage. My doctor suggested anti depressants but I’ve had a bad experience with them in the past so don’t think I have the capacity for an even worse experience. Anyone here in the same boat have good luck with a specific anti depressant med? If so, what medication worked for you? I know we are all different but just looking for experiences of others. Thanks!!

Hi ladies! I’m 43 and just started continuous estrogen patch and nightly progesterone. Continuous because my doctor is also trying to help smooth out my hormone fluctuations that trigger migraines for me. I started about two weeks ago and have noticed increased feelings of anxiety, fatigue, all of a sudden having trouble falling and staying asleep and I’m having a 3 day migraine at the end of my period. I’m really hoping this is just part of the initial adjustment phase and it’ll get better? I’ve heard I need to just try to make it to at least three months before I reassess how I’m feeling.

48 post. Was doing well til around January w 2 pumps E and 100 P. Was having break through symptoms so I went up to 200 P and then about 2 months later doc realized I’d stopped absorbing my E gel and I was put on patches. So within two months both E and P changed.

I’m on .05 twice a week E patch. I’ve tried to go up twice to .075 but immediately sore boobs and mood changes so went back to .05.

Current symptoms on .05 E patch and 200 P — so tired I will literally cry. Depression and anxiety. Dizziness. Sometimes anger. Sleep still kind of shitty. Motivation so low.

So last night I decided to go back to 100 P to see if that helped. I have been on 200 for 4 months. 100 is the dosage I had tolerated well for years. Last night was sweaty to say the least but that’s normal right? First night lowering P…I should give it a few days right to see it level?

I’m just looking for some support until this gets figured out. It’s worked before. Surely it will again right??

Edited to add: My doc has given me permission to experiment with these changes. I just don’t think she wants a daily check in.