If you’re in your late 40s or 50s and suddenly feel like nothing moves the needle on the scale, this news may catch your attention. A new analysis of a trial testing Novo Nordisk’s experimental weight-loss shot, CagriSema, found that women taking the combination lost an estimated average of 25 percent of their body weight over 68 weeks.
The findings, presented as a poster at The Menopause Society’s annual meeting, looked at more than 2,300 women with overweight or obesity in REDEFINE 1, a 68-week trial sponsored by Novo Nordisk. The analysis was done after the trial ended and hasn’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. One important detail: That 25 percent figure estimates results if participants stayed on treatment, not what every patient should expect.
Ahead, how CagriSema works, what the findings could mean for women navigating menopause and where the research stands.
How Is This Shot Different From a GLP-1 Alone?
CagriSema combines semaglutide, the GLP-1 drug in Wegovy, with cagrilintide, a drug that acts like amylin, a hormone made by the pancreas. Both help you feel less hungry, but they work through different signals in the body. Semaglutide helps regulate blood sugar and appetite, while cagrilintide adds another fullness signal. That’s the idea behind pairing them: two ways to turn down hunger in one weekly injection. And in this analysis, the combination appeared to add up. Women taking CagriSema lost an estimated 25 percent of their body weight on average, compared with 19 percent for semaglutide alone, 13 percent for cagrilintide alone and 3 percent for placebo.
What the Findings Could Mean for Menopause-Related Weight Gain
In a separate look at women before, during and after menopause, estimated average weight loss was about 27 percent for premenopausal women, 25 percent for perimenopausal women and 23 percent for postmenopausal women taking CagriSema. Researchers also saw reductions in waist size. For anyone who’s noticed weight settling around the middle in her 40s or 50s, that’s a finding worth watching. It doesn’t mean the drug fixes menopause-related hormonal changes, though, or that it works better specifically because someone is menopausal.
There are a few reality checks. These were post hoc analyses of an existing study, not a trial designed specifically to treat menopause-related weight gain. Researchers also assigned menopause status retrospectively using age, medical history and recorded symptoms, rather than confirming it through hormone testing or reproductive staging collected for the trial. CagriSema can also cause familiar GLP-1 side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation, and they were common: about 80 percent of people taking CagriSema in the trial reported digestive side effects (vs. 40 percent on placebo), with nausea alone affecting 55 percent. Most cases were mild to moderate and temporary, though about 6 percent stopped treatment because of side effects. And while there’s plenty of conversation around preserving muscle during weight loss, these analyses don’t establish that the combination protects muscle.
As for when you can get it, not just yet. CagriSema is still under FDA review, with a decision anticipated in late 2026. There’s no confirmed launch date, price or insurance coverage. For now, it’s another reason to keep an eye on the next generation of weight-management treatments, especially if menopause-related weight gain has felt harder to budge than ever.
