Today's guest speaker is Jane Harrison-Hohner. Today's Program is focused on Weight Gain in Older Women. Ms. Harrison-Hohner Welcome and Thank you for joining us today. I see patients in my clinical practice, teach and do research. The second factor, which is also age related, is that we begin to slowly lose muscle mass, too.
Age does play a role, too, in addition to the above factors.
For the moment we will assume that the women we're talking about do not have diabetes, polycyctic ovary disorder, hypothyroidism, or some other endocrine disorder, which is fueling their weight gain. This may be one reason why heavier set women have less osteoporodis and a statistically greater risk of estrogen associated cancers like breast and uterine cancer. This effect has been the subject of many scientific studies. Over all it has been found that estrogen users are not spared postmenopausal weight gain, however, they have more lean body mass, less insulin resistance, and continue to look more like pears than apples. Additionally, there seem to be equal weight gain in HRT and nonHRT users once you have controlled for activity, smoking, social class, etc.