Is it the begining of the end for Weight loss injections?

[BeginingoftheendforWLI]

Just watched a report on BBC news, they did an item on a woman who had type 2 diabetes and was prescribed Mounjaro, doctors were impressed she managed to come off insulin within a month. She had some weightloss and now goes to the gym regularly.

Her doctor admitted that there was widespread concern in the medical field that people who were buying it privately for cosmetic reasons not for medical reasons could face some consequences in the future such as muscle growth and bone degeneration and lack of nutrition - they simply don't have this data at present.

Feel like this is going to be big news in the foreseeable future.

So now we're reduced to having links to the sun about fake products as evidence of the stupidity of people who buy weight loss injections. There's this organisation called gphc who pharmacies register with and it would cost them their licence to sell fake shit. They buy it directly from the manufacturers. You can search the register or go to the main Mounjaro or wegovy price check site where they only link to registered suppliers. It's very easy to avoid fakes and no reason to stop people using the actual drug. Selling fake medicines is a criminal matter for the police.

@DarkForces well quite. A link to a tabloid article as evidence and people wonder why WLI users get defensive about being criticised as too stupid or lazy to not use them.

Link is ok. Article is called WEIGHT A MINUTE Warning over ‘sophisticated’ fake fat jabs that ‘look like the real thing’ – as demand expected to DOUBLE in 2026
More than 3million people could be on the jabs in 2026.
It highlights the risk of buying it on black market. And also highlights the expense of getting it privately.
I saw the news programme that the OP mentioned. The doctor commented that some people do take it to get the ‘body beautiful’.
If a patient is getting the prescription legitimately through a doctor and has been given all the information to make an informed decision then it’s their choice, their body, their business. It is worrying if people are resorting to getting it on black market though.

🙄

But what's it got to do with the actual thread which is about legitimate use?

@LydiaFunnyGums why the 🙄? The Sun, or frankly, most newspaper articles are not a good source of information about most things. As @DarkForces said, that article is about fake jabs not the real ones being issued through licenced pharmacies..it's a different conversation completely.

yes unfortunately there are plenty of people who will buy god knows what from a TikTok link - saw one influencer, also clearly not obese, injecting herself with some weird pink liquid (GLPs are clear) and then livestreaming from hospital as she got a massive allergic reaction.
This has nothing to do with safety of actual medication.

I'm not sure people raising concerns have realised how much more seriously they'd be taken if they would proactively explain their stance to other MHRA regulated drugs with similar amounts of historical data. And also spend equivalent time airing worries about the risks of obesity itself.

The Sun? Seriously? I immediately discard the opinion of anyone who reads The Sun and cites it as a reliable research source.

Weight loss surgery consistently results in malnutrition issues. Malabsorption and generally not eating enough has people needing to live their entire life on supplements just to survive.

You know what society cares more about? Them being skinny.

There is no way WLI are going to stop when there are still much, much more extreme options with more lifelong consequences happily being performed nationwide every year.

OK..............🤔🙄

Yes that was a bonus side effect for me too! I've just transitioned to Wegovy (cost) and want a drink even less...!

I can also say that I have fewer side effects from MJ than I did from anti-depressants or in fact codeine

People are defensive because it’s tedious when people say stuff that is irrelevant (some people might get it illegally/abuse it)
or just plain wrong (the drug is designed to make you lose weight faster than any other method, we only have five years’ data on these types of drug)

there is no obvious reason I can see that twenty years after taking this drug, as an active person who skips and eats lots of meat, I will suddenly experience complete muscle wastage. the drug seems to be very safe, there don’t seem to be thalidomide levels of toxicity (and women have even fallen pregnant on these drugs and delivered healthy babies).

Bring something like, MJ causes your foot to fall off in 10% of cases, and I will be interested.

In the meantime I have benefits which are priceless and immeasurable. It’s the difference between enjoying life and suffering through it.

I think what many of us find frustrating about these threads is people assuming they are providing a brand new warning that nobody taking WLI would have thought about

• Loss of muscle and bone density- this is a known risk for rapid weight loss so that is why good nutrition and exercise need to be part of the approach
• The drugs are new - except that they are not. GLP-1 agonists have been used for decades. Weight loss was discovered as a side effect of diabetes medication.
• People are misusing them - yes some people probably are but abuse of prescription and OTC medicines is not limited to WLI. eg codeine addiction from OTC and prescription sources
• Accusations we are taking insulin from diabetics- insulin is a fat storage hormone nobody will use it for weight loss (well nobody who knows anything about physiology anyway)

These are all known issues and many of us have weighed up(sorry!) the pros and cons and have made a rational choice. Being obese is not a low risk activity.

Some people will take stupid risks to lose weight and abuse of WLI are another stupid risk option but if it wasn’t WLI it would be something else. I can still walk into Boots and buy a medication containing codeine even though some people will end up addicted. I can buy paracetamol in the supermarket even though the gap between the therapeutic dose and the harmful dose is small.

At some point you have accept that people can assess risks and make different decisions to the one you would make.

What interests me is why are some people so invested in WLI failing or being problematic when they have the potential to improve the health of the nation and save the NHS a fortune in treating obesity related diseases.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude YES SNAP

Yes, exactly this.

Participating in a discussion on a subject you've no real idea about doesn't usually end well if you don't recognise when you're talking to people who know more than you do. No group of people are going to take well to someone who shows no evidence of understanding the basics whilst also complaining that they're not being listened to. And we've seen a number of posts like that on this thread.

WLIs are the same as anything else in that respect, they just come up more often.

I wouldn't dream of going on a thread about anti depressants and expressing concerns about how people are taking them, the potential for abuse, why people need them in the first place and what they intend to do when they come off them. It's just rude and irrelevant. I'm not on the board of the medicines regulator and assume they know what they're doing.

Oh, I do worry about other MHRA decisions, in fact it’s knowledge of the fallout of long-term effects of other meds they merrily approved without long-term data that leads me to be concerned about these.

Just one example: they approved the SSRI Paroxetine without any understanding of the long-term side effects or the severe discontinuation syndrome effects in medium and longer-term users that have led some patients to be stuck taking it for decades, with terrible symptoms. This has wrecked lives. There’s a huge class action being taken in the US but UK law prohibits any compensation for people here whose lives have been wrecked by it.

It’s not that WLI are being singled out, it’s that they’re suddenly being taken in such large numbers that are pushing them onto the radar.

@BunfightBetty Don't you think after 2 decades of use that anything really serious contraindications would be showing by now. You get to set whatever standard you like for the drugs you take and I'll do the same.

How many decades of data do you think is sufficient for approval of a new medication?

we are still learning new things about many commonly used medications because our understanding of how the human body works is incomplete and continues to evolve. Identifying issues post approval isn’t a flaw in the system - if anything it shows that the system is working as it shows that pharma is adhering to the requirement to continue to study and monitor for adverse events.

And if, as the BBC item mentioned, there really are 2.5 million people in the UK alone taking these drugs (not to mention many, many more in the USA and world-wide), I would say there must be a lot of data coming in daily re: potential results/bad outcomes.
The doctor on the bbc news last night was talking at length about the benefits but the OP has minimised that as it doesn't fit her agenda.

I’m not telling you what to do. I don’t know you, do I?! It’s not personal to you. For all I know, you could be somebody falling squarely in the category of those for whom the jabs can legitimately be prescribed, and who is otherwise facing serious health risks from obesity. But there are people out there asking if clinics insist on photos etc - there are regularly threads on here about it - ie they don’t legitimately fall within the category of people who the jabs are licensed for. These people are not weighing up the risks like you might have, they’re just focused on losing weight as quickly and easily as possible, without worrying about the risks and carefully calculating the risk/benefit trade off.

Personally, I would like longer term data before I took them. You’re at liberty to come to a different conclusion.

I don't understand why there is so little reasonable discussion on this topic on MN. Some people who take them seem to think that anyone raising their concerns about WLI is "judging" them. Some people who don't take them seem to think anyone who takes them is "cheating".

It's the same thing with cosmetic procedures.

It’s a balance between getting meds out so people can benefit vs caution re knowing the full picture. For me, I wouldn’t be taking them when I can use other means to lose weight that don’t have a possibility of unforeseen problems down the line. But like I said upthread, if I were morbidly obese and running significant health risks because of my weight, and I’d tried and failed to lose weight by other means, I might well come to a different decision.