Bonza Health Blog
Gain the tools and understanding you need to help manage the challenges of perimenopause and beyond.
Women experiencing perimenopause or menopause can reclaim their health and vitality. At Bonza Health, we help women see hormone changes as a natural midlife transition and provide the doctor-backed information women need to navigate hormonal health conditions with confidence.
Check out our latest blog posts from our leading physician’s best tips and tools for easing hormonal symptoms, special announcements on our courses and services, and much more! Be a part of our ever-growing community of like-minded women who are thriving in health -- even with perimenopause or menopause conditions.
The Dark Side of GLP-1s: Why Women Should Exercise Caution
When Mayim Bialik published her essay "My GLP-1 Nightmare" in June 2026, I realized maybe it was time to share my very similar story. She had taken a single low dose — not for weight loss, but because three separate physicians thought it might quiet the inflammation driving her autoimmune conditions, including Graves' disease. What followed was days of explosive diarrhea, violent sulfur burps, cramping, bloating, flu-like body aches, and sneezing attacks every time she tried to eat or drink. She could not keep down a sip of water; her physician sent a nurse to her home to run IV fluids. What unsettled her most was not the illness — it was how completely unsurprised her clinicians seemed by it. I recognized every line. Because in 2022, one injection landed me in the emergency department.
She's Already Lifting, Already Eating Well, and Still Gaining. This Isn't Vanity — It's Physiology
She is forty-six. She lifts three days a week and has for a decade. She tracks her protein. She walks the dog twice a day. Her labs, by most standards, look fine. And over the last two years she has gained eleven pounds that will not move — most of it through her midsection, in a pattern her body has never done before. Then she says the sentence I hear more than any other in my exam room: "I know it sounds vain, but—". I want to answer that sentence carefully, because it deserves two separate answers and most physicians only give the second one.
Subcutaneous vs. Sublingual GLP-1s in Perimenopause: A Cautious Physician's Honest Look at the Evidence
Estrogen decline in perimenopause and menopause drives measurable changes in body composition, insulin sensitivity, and visceral fat accumulation. Many of my patients describe gaining weight in their forties despite eating and exercising the same way they always have. They are not imagining this. The hormonal context has changed, and the metabolic machinery that used to work no longer works the same way. These are some of the most robust outcome data we have for any chronic-disease medication. The benefits are real. The side effects are also real, and they are not minor for a substantial subset of patients. Both of these facts deserve equal weight in the conversation about which form to use.