What hormonal medications help people get better? How to avoid gaining weight while taking hormonal hormones. Video: How to lose weight after hormones

“I gained so much weight because I started taking hormonal contraceptives“- this phrase can be heard from many girls who have suddenly gained weight. However, can the appearance of extra pounds really be associated with taking pills? In what cases medications can actually contribute to significant weight gain, the author of “Lady Mail.Ru” looked into it. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the facts and draw your own conclusions.

Fact 1: Weight gain may be associated with recovery.

Gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroenteritis, colitis, exacerbations of chronic gastritis, acute poisoning, as well as hyperfunction of the thyroid gland - hyperthyroidism, are often accompanied by weight loss.

Accordingly, when taking medications (enzymes, drugs that suppress the production of thyroid hormones, etc.), an improvement occurs, the patient begins to feel better and gains weight again. A typical example is when recovering from an acute attack of gastritis or poisoning, expansion of the scanty therapeutic diet(switching from porridge with water and crackers to scrambled eggs with whole grain bread for breakfast) is accompanied by an increase in a couple of previously lost kilograms. The main thing here is not to gain additional kilograms: after forced fasting, there is a danger of eating various goodies, which can lead not only to unwanted weight gain, but also, in the case of gastrointestinal diseases, stomach pain, stool upset and exacerbations of the “chronic”.

Fact 2. You can both lose weight and gain weight with the same drug

This can happen when taking anti-ulcer medications (lansoprazole, esomeprazole) - why has not yet been established - and some antidepressants. True, in the case of the latter, their effect on appetite, and therefore weight, depends on the symptoms of depression. According to Madeleine Fehrnstrom, MD, director of the Weight Management Center in Pittsburgh, USA, if one person loses their appetite as a result of stress, taking an antidepressant will cause them to eat more. And, conversely, when eating stress, his appetite will decrease. Fluoxetine (Prozac), which is quite successfully used in the treatment of bulimic neurosis, has this effect.

Fact 3. COCs and hormone replacement drugs do not affect fat mass

Modern COCs and drugs for correcting hormonal levels, as a rule, do not affect fat mass - you can recover from hormones only by taking drugs that stimulate ovulation (for example, in preparation for IVF). Weight gain when taking them can only be caused by temporary fluid retention, which can be easily dealt with by adjusting the diet (minus salt, plus magnesium and potassium), and increasing physical activity (try to sit less and walk more during the day). Painkillers such as indomethacin and diclofenac also cause a similar side effect.

Fact 4. Some drugs can indirectly affect weight

Sleeping pills, as well as antiallergic drugs, can cause drowsiness and fatigue, which in turn leads to a decrease in physical activity. As a result, a person spends fewer calories during the day than usual, which leads to a gradual increase in body weight.

Fact 5. Only potent drugs cause significant gains

You can gain quite noticeably by taking “killer” outdated tricyclic antidepressants that increase appetite: amitriptyline, anortriptyline and doxepin (according to a study by neuropsychologist, MD M. Hasnain, published by Postgraduate Medical Journal, up to 5% of initial body weight over 18 months). Neuroleptics (Zyprexa and Clozaril) and antidiabetic drugs (insulin, Maninil, Diabeton) have the same side effect. But the most significant effect on weight is exerted by corticosteroid drugs used in the treatment of asthma and autoimmune diseases: they negatively affect carbohydrate metabolism, causing the body to store excess fat. By taking them, you can gain 60-80% of your initial body weight in a year. “At the same time, excess weight is distributed unevenly: extra pounds are deposited on the torso and face, but the legs and arms remain thin,” explains Ilya Barsukov, Ph.D., endocrinologist. “To minimize the consequences of taking drugs in this group, you should follow the diet prescribed by your doctor: as a rule, when treating with glucocorticoids, patients are recommended to reduce the proportion of fats and simple carbohydrates in the diet.”

Fact 6: Overweight caused by medication can be managed.

Typically, your doctor should warn you about the possible side effects of the medicine he or she prescribes for you. However, an individual reaction to the drug is also possible. You need to sound the alarm if, within a week after prescribing a new drug, you have gained more than 2 kg of excess weight (while following a diet and sufficient physical activity) or, conversely, while taking any drug (or several) you are unsuccessfully trying to lose weight. In this case, you should definitely notify the doctor: he must adjust the dose or select an alternative. And under no circumstances should you stop taking the drug yourself: doing it on your own is fraught with the most dire consequences!

NB! The new generation of antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs for short) do not cause weight gain. However, there is an exception to the general rule - the antidepressant Paxil (the active ingredient is paroxetine): you can quickly gain 5 kg from it in a few months. However, doctors use its “side” effect for good - when treating patients with anorexia and underweight. In this case, two effects are achieved at once: the mood returns to normal and the weight is quickly restored.

Important!

After reading the list of side effects, you should not stop taking the drug. Especially if your doctor prescribed it to you. Each of the symptoms listed in the instructions appeared in one case out of a thousand or even less often. Particularly impressionable women should not re-read the list of “side effects” at all - otherwise, due to suspiciousness, they may discover one or another symptom.

Often the real reason weight gain is a decrease in physical activity and/or an increase in calorie intake. For example, taking COCs in some cases coincides with a change in marital status, which entails changes in lifestyle (and there may be late dinners with a loved one, a desire to stay home in the evening rather than go to the gym, etc.) . In general, there are quite a lot of factors that affect weight (besides medications), and this should always be taken into account before blaming “bad pills” for everything.

You shouldn't believe rumors. On the Internet you can find many articles in which “British scientists” prove the relationship between excess weight and taking sleeping pills, contraceptives, antibiotics and even vitamins. However, do not rush to take all this for granted: you can gain 5-10 kg only from the drugs mentioned in fact 5.

Weight loss after taking hormonal drugs is no different from any other weight loss, the secret of which is a combination of proper nutrition and an optimal level of physical activity. However, it is much more important to pay careful attention to the individual prescription of the drug and not to neglect yourself during the course of treatment, discussing all doubts and problems with your doctor in a timely manner.

To whom and why are hormonal drugs prescribed?

There are seven major endocrine glands in the human endocrine system, and there are many cells scattered throughout the gastrointestinal tract, for example, that also have the ability to produce hormones. There are several dozen hormones themselves, natural biologically active substances produced by the human body.

There are many hormonal medications that can be prescribed to women for one reason or another. And it is wrong to combine them into one frightening whole, overgrown with myths and superstitions. If the drug is prescribed by a doctor and the patient takes it correctly, there is no point in raising the question of the advisability of treatment. There are situations when hormonal therapy is irreplaceable.

As a rule, hormonal drugs are prescribed in order to compensate for the insufficient formation of some hormones in the body, or in order to suppress their excess production. Some types of hormonal drugs, such as glucocorticoids, are prescribed for diseases that are not directly related to the endocrine system - for example, bronchial asthma, severe allergic reactions, rheumatoid arthritis, and so on.

One of the diseases for which hormones, in particular the hormone insulin, can be prescribed is diabetes mellitus. The most commonly prescribed groups of hormonal drugs are synthetic thyroid hormones in the form of levothyroxine sodium alone (for example, L-thyroxine and Eutyrox), in the form of a combination of levothyroxine and liothyronine, that is, T4 and T3 (Thyreotom, Novotiral) or in combination with iodine ( Yodtyrox, Thyreocomb). These drugs are used to treat hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid.

A large number of women periodically or constantly use hormonal drugs with a contraceptive effect. Gynecologists can prescribe such pills not only for family planning, but also as a treatment for certain gynecological diseases. Contraceptives are also prescribed to change the level of estrogen in the blood in estrogen-dependent diseases, such as uterine fibroids and endometriosis.

Sometimes, with the help of progesterone drugs, they compensate for their own deficiency of this hormone in case of a common reproductive problem known as insufficiency of the second phase of the cycle (impaired functions of the corpus luteum, which can interfere with the desired one).

But drugs for hormone replacement therapy, when lost hormonal functions are restored with the help of pharmacology, are still used quite rarely in our country. Although in European countries the prescription of such medications has been practiced successfully for a long time.

Why does weight gain when taking hormonal drugs?

“People” have a strong opinion that as soon as you start taking these insidious “hormones”, in any form, you will definitely get better. And, it must be admitted, such a view cannot be called fundamentally wrong.

When using glucocorticoid drugs for a long time (we are talking about months and even years), for example, due to systemic connective tissue disease, or bronchial asthma, patients get better because glucocorticoids increase glucose levels, which, that is, indirectly contribute to an increase in the volume of adipose tissue .

Weight gain is also common in people with diabetes due to an overdose of insulin. Insulin is an anabolic hormone, that is, it stimulates the processes of utilization and storage of glucose, amino acids and fatty acids, and at the same time inhibits the catabolic processes of the breakdown of glycogen, fats and proteins.

But the use of thyroid hormones in itself cannot provoke weight gain. These hormones speed up metabolism, increase the body's heat production, and increase the activity of the cardiovascular system, that is, they cause processes that are associated with weight loss.

If you are participating in a discussion about the fact that a friend, acquaintance, colleague from the next office, or a TV celebrity has gained weight “on hormones,” do not rush to apply this information to yourself. Starting to take hormonal medications does not automatically mean that it’s time to buy clothes to grow.

The first question that arises when you hear about “hormonal” weight gain: how did the woman eat? Body weight cannot increase in the absence of excess nutrition. In any case, if the drug was prescribed to you by a doctor after a thorough examination and strictly according to indications, and you cannot not take it, you must first of all take a close and honest look at your diet and the degree of physical activity. If you are sure that you are eating right, moving enough, and the weight continues to “gain”, you should understand the reasons individually and together with your doctor. Under no circumstances should you cancel and replace treatment on your own, go on a strict diet, and especially starve. Just like using other people’s experience of losing weight after taking hormonal drugs.

These high-calorie contraceptives!

Contraceptives can be called the most “massive” of all hormonal drugs; accordingly, the lion’s share of the discussion of the problem of losing weight “due to hormones” is associated with their use.

There are three main reasons why women who use hormonal birth control for a long time may gain weight:

• 1 Progesterone, one of the hormones contained in contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy, contributes to some fluid retention in the body.
• 2 Reception hormonal pills can influence changes in eating behavior, namely, increase appetite.
• 3 Relatively new data: if a woman gains weight when prescribed contraceptives, then most likely at the time of prescription she had subclinical hypothyroidism, which “worsened” with changes in hormonal levels. When thyroid function decreases, weight gain is common.

No hormonal drugs have their own calorie content. Accordingly, they themselves are not incapable of causing weight gain. If this happens, the reason lies deeper, and one should get rid of the consequences of its manifestation under the supervision of a specialist, without rash experiments and haste.

Do outdated hormonal hormones make you gain weight, and new ones make you lose weight?

Also, we must not forget that the drug is different from the drug. The first artificially synthesized female sex hormones - estrogen and progesterone - were obtained in 1929 and 1934, and the first birth control pill appeared on the market in the 60s of the last century. Since then, the doses of hormones in the drugs have been significantly reduced, and the active ingredients themselves have become bioidentical. For example, the latest generation of contraceptives uses estradiol valerate, which is converted in the intestine into estradiol, identical to its own.

Varieties of gestagens have appeared that are part of contraceptives and drugs for hormone replacement therapy. These substances, for example, drospirenone, have the property of removing excess fluid from the body. Also, to reduce the risk of side effects, you can ask your doctor to prescribe progressive contraceptives: for example, a gel applied to the skin that minimally participates in metabolic processes “inside” the body.

Research the latest drugs containing female sex hormones demonstrate that the latest generation of medications not only does not contribute to weight gain, but also reduces fasting glucose levels and insulin resistance, and also improves the lipid profile, reducing the level of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipids.

It is important for women of any age to know about this: correctly selected drugs for hormone replacement therapy during menopause will help avoid the sad and unpleasant manifestations of the metabolic syndrome characteristic of this period, including not only weight gain and the appearance of fat deposits in the abdominal area, but also “hot flashes.” ", thinning hair on the head and growth on the face, risk of osteoporosis, vascular pathology, atrophic processes in organs.

But! With all the advantages of properly prescribed hormonal therapy, it is necessary to remember that you cannot start taking hormones of your own free will just because wonderful pills helped someone from your environment. All, even the most modern drugs, have contraindications. Hormonal medications are prescribed by a doctor strictly individually, and for long-term treatment, you must visit the doctor at least twice a year. This is the only way you can achieve safe medication use and avoid unwanted consequences.