To think weight-loss injections should be prescribed in person only. The scale of abuse must be shocking.

The joke is on them really. Because if they were a healthy weight when they started, and they’re abusing it, ultimately they are going to blow up like a balloon when hunger comes back with a vengeance when they stop. It’s our mum’s yo-yo dieting for the next generation.

I didn’t have to provide a photo.

I was just at the weight threshold (BMI 27 with both PCOS and high cholesterol and they did a real time video call with me standing on scales). But would be easy for someone to have some weights down back of trousers etc.

They wrote to my GP. I send a message to my GP also saying I was going to use it to lose 10kg and then would like another cholesterol check.

I’m not sure what I will do longer term. It will be hard to maintain, will require constant vigilance, but I really do need to as my mum is borderline type 2 diabetic with a BMI not far above what I was at the start.

All that being said if you saw me and knew I was taking would be easy to be judgey also. Especially now I have lost weight and my BMI is now almost normal.

Anyone interested in how regulation of prescription is being tightened... Here is Oushk's enforcement notice after their failed GPhC inspection this month:

https://inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/enforcement/9012610-2025-07-02-3491.pdf

Curate, MedExpress and Chemist4U have also all recently failed inspections, as GPhC implement the strengthened regulations that came in in February. Clearly requirements should have been more rigorous from the start, but it’s going to be very hard to get a prescription from a legitimate pharmacy fraudulently now. The pharmacies will be worried about potentially losing this cash cow.

There are a lot of people invested in stopping people from getting weight loss injections. There’s definitely an agenda.

Agree in controls to try and prevent misuse but not obstructing people who genuinely need it.

Surprised and sceptical of all these people who are able to get their hands on it with low bmis.

What symptoms?

really? I suspect there is more to that story😊

with only being loaded into the ambulance it seems surprising that a full diagnosis was available! And she was able to not only receive that diagnosis but text it out

Agree.

My youngest daughter's friend is now in an ambulance because she was taking mounjaro and wasn't aware how it counteracts with even moderate amounts of alcohol.

Going to be totally honest and get lots of abuse now but I did this too: I have since come to my senses and cancelled it after 2 months. I put my phone on the floor and used the least flattering angle and put gym clothes 2 sizes too small on and pulled my belly over them. I was 9 stone 10 and 5 ft 3 and a size 10. They approved it in about 12 hours.

i have since stopped taking it and actually told them the truth that I lied because I think they should be aware how easy it was. This was Voy

Agreed. Which is fair enough, since they don't get paid for it.

There could come a point when a sufficiently critical mass of the population are on them that it frees up appointments which would otherwise have been needed for obesity related conditions. But with our ageing population and the problems in general practice, I can't imagine we'll see less pressure on GPs time. Other things will step in to fill up the capacity before we notice it.

According to Oushk, who recently failed inspection and now does video consultations every 6 months to show photo proof of ID, weight verifications and now also require independent height verifications so they can verify BMI that is required by the GPhC and other providers will have the same issues as they have had once they are inspected. Consent to inform GP is also now mandatory on their order consultation forms.

Irritating to have to do when a genuinely eligible patient, but not a bad thing to ensure all patient safety especially when patients get towards lower BMIs during maintenance.

GPs don't have enough appointments for sick people they really don't have time to weigh/measure people who want private prescriptions. And most of them will refuse to do this anyway.

I'm on mounjaro and have been for just over a year. I've gone from BMI 31 to a BMI of 23 and tapering off now. I have a size 8-10 relative with low BMI and a history of disordered eating who is on a different WLI, which she gets from a private clinic, so i do get what the OP is saying. My relative keeps going on about how the medication is getting rid of her 'skinny fat'.

When I started there weren't the stricter controls that there are now, with real time video calls and weigh-ins, but I honestly thought that the providers were looking at the meta-data from photos provided and could check the date it was taken? I know that wouldn't necessarily stop people gaming the system, but my autistic brain just assumed that photo data would be checked thoroughly.

Mmm, there's a certain grandiosity evident in the tsunami analogy.

While I agree this would be a very good control, GPs simply don’t have the time to do this.

maybe a few of the big chemist chains would do it and charge?

My provider wrote to my GP, and all my use is communicated to them. I think it would be a good idea to have to go to the doctors and be weighed, and for weight to be communicated to the weight loss medication provider, to stop any abuse.

I don’t think so. You introduced the scenario of only you knowing a tsunami is coming and you being responsible for warning everyone.

that says a lot about how you view yourself in this scenario.

weight is a complex issue. Lots of medications have side effects. But this one is causing uproar - people don’t like it when other people lose weight: often it is a way people get to feel superior. In your scenario you clearly feel superior - only you have the information that will save everyone and no one will listen.

Interesting overreaction.

Yes, I doubt they will follow the same path as cigarettes. It's a fundamentally different type of product and market. You don't get a 'hit' from taking WLI and they're not something that might be considered cool and edgy by a youth market. WLI are actually cheaper than smoking as an appetite suppressant, it would cost about £100 a week to smoke 20 packaged cigarettes a day.

Yes but that was in the 1920s. Medicine has moved on. These drugs mimic a hormone. Cigarettes were never designed for medicinal purposes although I accept that they were promoted for that at some point but that was for different reasons.

it’s comparing apples and oranges and a completely illogical argument.

Yes exactly, medical science was nowhere near what it is today. Which is why the poster who speculated about WLIs following the same path as cigarettes was being so ridiculous.

Linked wrong poster! Oops

That's true, but at the time medical science was nowhere near as advanced as it is today and it wasn't considered necessary to back up health claims with evidence.

Cigarettes do have a calming effect if you are a smoker, and nicotine is an appetite suppressant, so it isn't that those claims are incorrect, it's just that the health detriment far outweighs any benefit. I'm not sure how anyone ever thought they soothe a sore throat, though!

I think the point is that there was no evidence cigarettes were actually doing any of these things, though. We know there were lots of claims made about them being health giving, which were believed even by people in the medical profession sometimes. But they weren't backed up with any science, which makes them the complete opposite of WLIs.

You might not believe this but my grandparents were advised by their doctor to take up smoking during WW2 to combat 'war nerves'. My grandpa was in a reserved manual occupation in a large city that was a target for bombing, and due to his job there was no option to move anywhere safer. They smoked till the end of their lives - they lived to their late 80s, dying within weeks of each other just before the Millennium, and interestingly, didn't die of smoking-related illness.

If you look at vintage cigarette adverts there are lots that recommend smoking for its calming effect, appetite suppressing qualities and even as a soother for coughs!

Another thread where people are predicting awful side effects to emerge.

These drugs work by mimicking a natural hormone present in the body. They really can’t be compared to smoking or vaping or opioids or other drugs. The best comparison is probably HRT.

Of course people with eating disorders will abuse them. Of course people who want to drop a couple of pounds before a holiday will abuse them. Of course dodgy ‘practitioners’ will sell them under the counter and none of this will stop regardless of any measures put in place to make accessing the drug legitimately more of a hassle for the people who meet the criteria.