Why she started
At 1.72 m and 83 kg, Alexandra is not severely overweight. But with menopause, something shifted: little fat deposits that no longer go away, water retention, a feeling in her body that no longer fits who she is. Many women know this – and then only hear “eat less, move more”.
She deliberately waited a week and watched how I tolerated the injection. After that, she started Mounjaro herself. Her verdict so far: she doesn't regret the step.
What menopause does to your weight
In the years around menopause, oestrogen levels fall. This has measurable consequences: fat tends to be stored around the belly and the organs rather than on the hips and thighs, muscle mass declines, and with it the basal metabolic rate drops. Hormonal fluctuations can also lead to water retention. This explains why many women gain weight in this phase even though they are not doing anything differently.
GLP-1 medications such as tirzepatide don't change your hormones – they act on appetite and metabolism. In the large approval trials, a majority of participants were women, many of them at typical menopausal age.
What women should keep in mind in this phase
- Contraception: According to the prescribing information (SmPC), tirzepatide can reduce the effectiveness of the pill, especially after starting and after each dose increase. If you can still become pregnant during perimenopause, discuss this with your doctor. Mounjaro is not approved during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
- Protect your muscles: Because muscle mass is lost during menopause anyway, protein and strength training are doubly important here – more on this in the guide to keeping muscle.
- Hormones and the weight-loss injection are two separate topics: Symptoms such as hot flushes, sleep problems or mood swings belong with your gynaecologist – the injection does not treat them.
- Bones: After menopause the risk of osteoporosis rises, and rapid weight loss can put additional strain on bone density. Calcium, vitamin D and exercise are a topic for your next doctor's appointment.
What comes next
Like me, Alexandra later switched for cost reasons to tirzepatide that is not approved as a medicine but sold as a research peptide. That is part of our honest story – but it is not a recommendation: nobody checks the content, purity or sterility of such products. More on this in Marcus's report.
In the next part we report on Alexandra's side effects, what helped against them and her first results. If you don't want to miss it: updates appear in the community first.
Personal experience report, published with Alexandra's consent. Not medical advice. Mounjaro is prescription-only; we advise against using unapproved products.