Thank you for your interesting question! As a board certified Gynecologist AND Cosmetic Surgeon, I of course focus in on the word "menopause." First of all, let me say that any fat that lies between the skin and the muscle ("subcutaneous" fat) can be reduced with SculpSure or CoolSculpting (or liposuction). At my practice, we use SculpSure as our non-surgical option for many reasons. So, you should get results from SculpSure, as long as all this menopause weight isn't inside your abdominal cavity ("visceral" fat). Getting back to menopause.... I have female patients who tell me, "Dr. Bullis, I don't get it. I've gained 15 pounds in the past 9 months! I eat the same as always; I have the same job, kids, husband, and exercise routine. Nothing has changed in my life, but I'm 15 pounds heavier. Why?!" Often, these women are in their mid- to late forties or early fifties and when I ask about menstrual periods, hot flashes, etc., they invariably are also in the throes of menopause with intermittent hot flashes, irregular periods, moodiness, trouble sleeping, etc. So, this is what I think of when I hear a story like yours - menopausal fat. What that means is that your body has too much estrogen relative to progesterone. Usually, progesterone is the hormone that declines first and creates this situation of "estrogen excess." Normal estrogen levels + low progesterone levels = "estrogen excess." Estrogen excess causes metabolic changes (among other things), which can result in increased fat deposition. Throw in a little stress (high cortisol levels) and that weight gain goes almost totally to the trunk or tummy. To make matters worse, fat cells also produce estrogen, which then makes the estrogen excess even worse. This can become a vicious cycle that can cause some pretty remarkable truncal obesity in a fairly short time. In addition to liposuction and SculpSure, I also treat hormones and have a medically supervised weight loss program at my practice, because simply destroying or removing the fat does not really address the underlying reason why you suddenly got that fat and contrary to popular opinion, new fat cells can be made in regions previously treated with any of these modalities. I believe in using "bio-identical" hormones and monitoring levels to ensure that my patients do not get too much of these hormones, because too much can be associated with other health risks. You may not be able to find a "one-stop shop" like mine in your area, but you can certainly find a provider who offers bio-identical hormone therapy and another for the fat reduction. I encourage you to do a little research on bio-identical hormone replacement. There are controversies surrounding it and I admit that the majority of my Ob-Gyn brothers and sisters do not share my views on it, but I believe they will eventually. See the link below for more information.
