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

I've no idea where the poster got 23 from but there is a correlation between higher BMI and better bone health. Which do you choose indeed?

I know of someone who’s no more than a size 8 using it (is a hairdresser and got it from someone working in the salon). I also am aware of someone who recently ended up in hospital and was wrongly advised about the right dose after obtaining it from another beautician. The vial it came in wasn’t labelled properly either.

I agree. I’m a bmi of 25.7 but have high BP. I’ve put on 2 stone since having kids and have never got below 10 st despite going to the gym x 3 per week, very active job and generally in life and not really overeating or snacking on sweets etc. My partner is on it legitimately and has lost almost 4.5 stone and he was a massive binge eater.

I have recently retired as a clinician and share your concerns about misuse. I reported MedExpress to the GPhC and MHRA for social media posts where there was clear evidence of misuse but they ignored it and posted comments like "Congratulations on your weight loss". I hope that may have contributed to their recent inspection woes.
On the other hand, we have to accept there is widespread misuse and abuse of medications prescribed by the NHS. Just in my own practice we were aware of people lying to get medication, sharing medication with others, selling medication down the pub and sending medication abroad. Even with the will to stop it and more controlled prescribing it is hard so I suspect this may be a losing battle and we may just have to accept that some people will put themselves at risk and that's before we look at the unregulated market where nobody even knows what is in the injections.

I have to agree with others though that things are tightening up with the registered providers. I have used 3 providers over the last year, all have asked for proper ID, full length photos (the first wanted just the photo, the second wanted me holding a piece of paper with that day's date written on and the most recent wanted it submitted via their site where the photo was taken and went straight through rather than a previously taken one being uploaded), all have asked for GPs details and evidence of previous prescriptions. Seeing as there are not enough prescribers to see all patients F2F it is hard to see what more they can do without undermining genuine users

We know someone who is a size 10 who has got hold of mounjaro and is using it.
I cannot believe how widespread these WLJs are becoming.

But this is not data. It’s a few anecdotes and a lot of opinions.

Yeah a personal trainer is great for getting strong and other things but it won’t do shit for weight loss. I gained scale weight when i started strength training because muscle weighs more. Weight loss is much more about diet like 80%.

I mean, whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why should the rest of us suffer consequences of the idiots?

but honestly, you can't always tell. I don't tell people my weight but I carry it well, dress well, and if we ever get into one of those conversations about trying to be "good" or whatever, I always get people saying I look great and they'd be genuinely surprised if I told them my weight which is (due to being v short) about 5 stone overweight. I am a size 14/16 , so according to some on here that's fine, normal, not a problem. But it is. I have been on MJ in a small 2.5 / 5mg dose since April and have lost just under 2st. Its just made it possible to eat the sub 1000 calories I need to to lose weight, as another pp said. But I would need to lose AT LEAST another 2 and probably 3 to get into a healthy BMI, but most people that know me wouldn't think I needed it and will probably tell me I look too thin or unhealthy if I get there. I think a lot of the negative posts don't appreciate that we have become REALLY bad at seeing what is normal, healthy, overweight etc and don't want to accept that as a society we have completely normalised being an unhealthy 2-3 stone overweight.

i could do with shifting a few stones, I eat too much crap and know I do but I’d rather get a personal trainer than pay the £150 a month for injections which I have no idea how they will affect me

@AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii and yet the latest research (from a week ago or so) says that actually people in our western societies move plenty already and it’s our diet that is the issue.
So our focus shouldn’t be on more exercise. It should be on eating better.

And how quickly have they lost weight?

Because many people are in this mindset that it’s better to loose a lot very quickly.
The Result is the same than when you do any crash diet (except this time it’s much easier so more people do it for longer). People loose muscle, hair, look ill etc…. Just like they did when they were doing the cabbage diet.

Im not saying that there isn’t any side effects that are specific to WLI, but most of the really negative stuff is that. This idea that it’s ok to loose 1~2kg or more a week fir weeks on end. That just loosing weight is the important part. Not replenishing the body, ensuring you have enough nutrients etc…. The whole diet industry memo applied to WLI.
I mean some adverts I’ve seen for exercise at home were proposing the loose 15kg in 3 weeks 😵‍💫😵‍💫. That’s crazy and unrealistic. But somehow people still aim for that 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Yes but what you haven’t said is that those posters had BMIs of 29 and 29.5 so very very close to cut off and nothing like someone who isn’t overweight using it to use a stone. Definitely in the benefits outweighing risks category.

An HCP who thinks that's how MHRA pick up population-level issues? 🤔

This, he needs to contact them if its getting out of hand really.

There are community pages on Facebook for the injections and people are losing their hair, gallbladder issues and countless other things

If that's true, my quote smacks if someone using the injections who probably shouldn't be and is scared they'll get find out.

OP sounds worried ,not jealous, is raising an important point about drug abuse I wasn't aware of, even as a Health Care Professional. And TBH sounds like a much better person than the writer of this quote, so jog on love.

Yeah were both over that bmi 😐. Ide give it a go without if he tried them. We both need to do something. Trying to persuade him is the thing.
Its good that they are requiring photo ID now though, so they should, i can see there being stricter laws brought in at some point.

I agree OP I think it’ll be the next big scandal in a few years and makes me think of vaping, vaping should never have been allowed to be sold by shops only healthcare professionals as part of stopping smoking and I feel similarly about weight loss injections

i know several people on them who really didn’t need them so unsure how they’ve got them but they’re getting them from somewhere

i could do with shifting a few stones, I eat too much crap and know I do but I’d rather get a personal trainer than pay the £150 a month for injections which I have no idea how they will affect me

they may have their place under strict criteria and should be given under controlled environment but not willy nilly and other things should be tried first, I work with someone who has been doing the NHS weight loss thing with the shakes and then gradually adding in meals with strict calories along side exercise and she has lost loads of weight so it can be done

i am with a nurse and wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole unless I was morbidly obese and had tried everything else

@Liss19 many places now ask you to upload ID and expect that to match the payment details, and the photos or video that you upload.

You and your husband likely both qualify though, so no need to lie. Work out your BMIs and if over 30 then you’d definitely meet the criteria.

No prescription medication is guaranteed safe. But WLI are judged to be safe enough that the benefits very much outweigh the risks for those that qualify.

I guess it wouldnt exactly be hard to take a pic of someone else and lie about who you really are to these online prescribers, if i could afford it i would give it a go and my hubby too i bet (saying that he would begrudge the price for himself alot!!) But i am size 16-18 and hubby is 21st and like triple XL or something, so we kinda need it.
They should make the rules stricter, but i guess that wont happen until a few skinny people have died from malnutrition 😫.
I wonder how truly safe they are tbh.

Hi there @SquishyGloopyBum, I’ve been thinking about what you and a few posters have said about things becoming harder for eligible patients to get the injections - but how much harder would harder be? Would it be the formality people have to go through, or would it be a whole new qualifying criteria altogether?

*agree they are life changing but the more non-eligible people do this, the harder it will be for those who are eligible to access them.