10/04/2026
Life’s Healthiest
Losing weight using GLP-1 drugs during menopause might feel like a win. Your bones may disagree.
For many women in midlife, menopause brings a host of unwanted physical changes — weight gain and increased abdominal fat chief among them. It's no surprise, then, that more women are turning to popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to shed those extra pounds. But there's a catch almost nobody's talking about.
According to a bone health expert, Wendy Kohrt, from the Colorado State University School Of Medicine, the growing number of older women losing significant weight while navigating menopause could be setting up a future bone health crisis.
"A perfect storm could be brewing right now," Kohrt said. "Postmenopausal women are already at a time of life when they're losing bone at an accelerated rate. They are seeking a treatment with GLP-1 drugs that will likely accelerate bone loss even more."
Here's the twist: for the past 30 years, as overweight and obesity became more prevalent in the US, hip fracture rates actually went down. Extra body weight, it turns out, offered a kind of unintentional bone protection. Now, Kohrt warns, that protection may be disappearing right as it's needed most. "If we start to see people losing weight, osteoporotic fracture rates may rise again," she said. "That's part of this perfect storm."
The biology behind this comes down to estrogen. As a woman's estrogen levels decline during menopause, her body loses a key line of defense against bone loss — which is why bone density typically drops during this stage of life, raising the risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Estrogen hormone therapy can help some women maintain their estrogen levels through menopause, but it isn't the right fit for everyone.
"They're already at a time of life when they're losing bone at an accelerated rate," Kohrt said. "They are seeking a treatment that is likely to accelerate that bone loss even more, which is going to increase their risk for fractures — maybe at an earlier age, or with more severe consequences."
One especially striking finding: how much weight you lose directly affects how much bone you lose. But regaining that weight doesn't work the same way in reverse — at least not within the first year. "The magnitude of weight you lose influences how much bone you're going to lose," Kohrt explained, "but the magnitude of weight you regain, at least over a one-year period of time, does not seem to have any impact on how much bone you regain."
Her conclusion is blunt: "Weight loss equals bone loss." And it's not just fat that disappears — muscle mass is often lost right along with it. That matters more than people realize, since strong muscles play a direct role in stimulating and maintaining bone density. Lose the muscle, and you lose one of the body's natural tools for protecting bone health, too.
Interestingly, fat itself isn't just a passive tissue sitting on the sidelines — it actually plays a protective role of its own. For people over age 65, Kohrt and other experts recommend maintaining a healthy weight, or even gaining a few pounds, specifically to help protect bone health. That's because fat tissue is a source of an enzyme that can convert testosterone into estrogen, which in turn helps protect the skeleton, Kohrt explained. In addition, Purple Wing Therapy’s Menopause Collagen contains active peptides specific to menopausal bone health. If you are on a GLP-1 and experiencing unwanted side effects, Desbio’s GLP-1 Support helps to mitigate those effects.
Estrogen therapy helps improve bone health and prevent bone loss. If prescription hormones are not for you, Desbio Homeopathic Estrogen is safer than prescription and as effective too. If you want to lose weight safely and you don’t want to use GLP-1 drugs, consider these options:
Desbio Appetite Control Formula curbs that food noise and hunger.
Desbio EquilSlim: safe and natural weight loss without the nasty side effects.
Desbio GLP-1 Support: mitigates the unpleasant side effects of GLP-1 drugs.
Desbio Homeopathic Estrogen: safer than prescription and just as effective.Purple Wing Therapy’s Menopause Collagen: protects and strengthens bones.
Desbio Formulas and Purple Wing Therapy Menopause Collagen are available at LifesHealthiest.com.