Menopause weight gain and belly fat
Weight gain in perimenopause and menopause is common, often at the waist. Menopause and HRT have not been shown to be the main cause of the extra pounds.
Ines Kovac
Menopause guides: symptoms, HRT, sleep and everyday changes
Writer
Ines Kovac
Menopause guides: symptoms, HRT, sleep and everyday changes
Ines Kovac writes the practical guides on Unpaused: perimenopause, symptoms, hormone therapy, sleep, hot flushes and weight. She builds each piece from NHS and NICE pages, The Menopause Society's position statements and the studies behind them, and links every claim a reader might want to check. She says plainly what the evidence supports and where it runs out, and she never tells a reader to start or stop a medicine. Any correction is noted on the page where the error occurred.
Last checked 2026-10-17
What she covers
- perimenopause
- menopause symptoms
- hormone replacement therapy
- sleep and night sweats
- hot flushes
- weight and diet in menopause
Sources she works from
NICE NG23, NHS condition pages, Menopause Society position statements and the trials they cite. Every guide links these where the fact is used, and our editorial policy sets out how sources are chosen and how corrections are made.
Guides by Ines Kovac
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy
Bioidentical means the hormone molecule matches one the body makes. NHS body-identical HRT is a regulated medicine. Compounded mixes are not shown to be safer.
Does HRT cause weight gain? What the trials show
HRT does not cause weight gain, according to a Cochrane review of 28 trials. Early bloating and fluid retention can feel like weight gain, and both usually settle.
HRT risks in plain numbers: extra cases per 1,000
Extra cases of breast cancer, blood clots and stroke per 1,000 women on hormone replacement therapy, by type, route and how long it is used.
Menopause symptom checklist for your GP
A printable list of perimenopause and menopause symptoms, with how often each occurs and how much it bothers you, for a GP visit about hormone therapy.