Patient. Hello, I gained 10 pounds after three injections of leuprolide, is it normal? Can I lose weight after stopping the drug?
Everyone has a love for beauty, if you become fat because of the use of drugs, will it affect your willingness to take drugs?
There are some diseases that are estrogen-dependent diseases, such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, estrogen receptor-positive premenopausal breast cancer, if they are compared to grass, estrogen is like the source of life - water, as long as there is water, the grass will be lush, once there is a lack of water, the tenacious grass will dry up.
Leuprolide is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue that works by temporarily stopping the ovaries from producing estrogen, thereby shrinking and alleviating these estrogen-dependent "nourished" diseases.
For example, the use of leuprolide in pelvic pain caused by endometriosis can reduce pain in more than 80% of people, even those with severe pain.
Although weight gain is inextricably linked to diet and exercise, if you notice a change in your weight before and after you start using leuprolide**, you can still consider whether it is caused by this drug.
Because changes in body weight were found in people who used the drug in large numbers, 13% of patients experienced post-medication weight gain, and 13% of patients also happened to experience post-medication weight loss. Usually we think that weight loss may be related to the appetite effects of medications, and that weight gain may be related to edema (as 5-21% of people also experience some degree of edema). In this way, it seems that the weight we gain can still fall off on its own after stopping the drug.
* Is all the weight water and not meat?
There is also a scholar who did a study on this, and he observed that obesity and increased BMI were quite common in patients using leuprolide**, so he did a study on patients who were overweight and not overweight (whether the BMI was greater than 30).
He divided the patients who were given leuprolide into two groups according to whether they were overweight or not, and since the MIF gene is a valid gene for obesity, he tested both types of patients for this gene to see if they had the label of obesity in their bones.
The results of the study showed that leuprolide increased the weight of patients (weight and genes) who were already obese and increased the risk of obesity-related diseases. This means that leuprolide brings not only edema, but also fat gain.
Therefore, the use of leuprolide will indeed make some people fat, especially those who are already overweight, and only a part of this fat may recover on its own after stopping the drug (the part of edema), and the real fat gain still needs to be lost through a reasonable diet and enhanced exercise.
If you are concerned about changes in your weight, it is recommended that you do not overeat while using leuprolide. What's more, in order not to increase your risk of obesity, such as blood sugar, blood pressure, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease, you should manage your weight through a healthy lifestyle, with or without leuprolide.
Author: Zhou Boya, Department of Pharmaceutical Affairs, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University.
Reviewer: Feng Xin, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University.