Staying on 2.5 Mounjaro.

[Orangesandlemons77]

I have noticed a few people are doing this and often on advice of their doctor or pharmacist but most of the pharmacies I have looked at recommend moving up to 5 after the first month.

So how do you manage this please?

I think the original advice is to move up a dose after each pen; but most people get very good results and very little side effects on lower doses, so there is no need to move up. You can stay on a dose until you feel it's no longer working for you, before you move up the next. When you go to re-order your treatment, you can just pick your current dose again.

I'm currently on 5mg and have been on Mounjaro since July. I have noticed however that my results are stalling a little bit and that the suppression effect has lessened a little.
Therefore I am considering upping my dose next time I order.
I think staying on lower doses would be preferable but I guess it depends whether they continue working for you.

I'm staying on 2.5mg at the moment - I tried a 5mg dose and the side effects were awful, explosive and impossible to live with. So I went straight back to 2.5.

I don't get the intense suppression I did in the first few weeks, but I'm happier with this honestly. I feel like I'm eating in a very sustainable way - three meals a day of good, healthy food in reasonable portions. I don't really want to go back to struggling to get more than a couple of mouthfuls in. I like having the energy to work out.

It means my weight loss is slow and steady, 2lbs a week on average but I have experienced stalls and plateaus - I think they're inevitable. I hope this will help me avoid loose skin and I'm grateful not to have a dramatic weight loss that will have people commenting and asking questions.

The downsides are - of course I get frustrated; I want to drop BMI point and dress sizes quicker and of course it's expensive to contemplate being on it for at least a year, and likely longer as I would hope to take it for maintenance.

Ultimately though, I need to be able to work and function and I've had enough experience in my life of diets that make me ill and miserable - I'm not going to live with diarrhoea and vomiting, and that's what 5mg did to me. It won't be the same for everyone.

Yes this is kind of my thinking as well. So most pharmacies don't mind you staying on the lower dose then?

I notice this dose seems to be a little cheaper as well.. https://rightangled.com/products/mounjaro-injections-1

I’m intending to stay on 2.5 as well (on 3rd week now). I’ve been thinking about it and I’m getting what I need from the med, moderate suppression and I can control any side effects. It is not the same level of suppression as the first week but I am ok with that and I am controlling what I eat. The main thing for me is whilst I’ll occasionally get hunger, when I go to eat I’ll still eat far less than what I used to.
Also I am going to the gym and I need to be able to eat to do spin etc. I wasn’t able to go much when I’d full blown appetite suppression.

I will move up to 5 if I start wanting to eat large amounts again. I’m treating this med as a learning experience and I’m trying to develop new habits. I’m unsure (for me) the benefits of being too sick to eat properly tbh.

I’m unsure about the pharmacies and maintenance doses but am hoping it will be possible to get.

I order from Asda, they advise moving up to 5mg and I do buy 5mg pens in case I decide to increase at all. I do 30 clicks each injection so I get a 2.5mg dose from the 5mg pen - that way, I can adjust up to 3.75mg if the 2.5 loses efficacy. So I suppose as far as my records show, it does look like I'm on a 5mg dose since that's what I order.

I think that most of the pharmacists working in these online outfits have very little practical experience of the drug (it’s so new) and so are really just following a script. I also think that they need to guard against people saying the drug is not effective and asking for their money back, and the guidance says you need to move up to ensure effectiveness.

I queried with Med Express when I had too much suppression on 5 and even though they said it was being “referred to the pharmacy team” I basically got an AI style response saying “eat vegetables”.

I'm kind of struggling with too much suppression on 2.5 atm

@IsItCasualNow can I ask what’s your take on the 30 day shelf life once the med is open ? I am assuming you will have it open for longer if you’re dividing the doses in the 5mg pen.
I’m unsure if keeping it for longer matters that much.

@HotCrossBunplease that’s interesting because I never thought of it like that. I’m getting a zoom consultation with my supplier tomorrow so I’ll ask face to face and see the response. I was going to stay on 2.5mg anyway and I’ll do it until I feel nothing. I know a cosmetic specialist nurse who I told I was starting the med and she told me she microdoses Mounjaro and previously Ozempic. I didn’t ask for precise details as I was quite surprised as she’s quite slim (now I know why 🙃).

I think the pen needs to be used within 30 days of first use. I was planning on cutting costs by using the extra dose, and also that this dose seems a little cheaper. Medexpress do a price match as well. Thins might bring the cost to around £100 every 4 weeks. Still a lot over say a year but will probably save on food shopping!

Do you have to throw away what's left after the 30 days since you're not using all of it or do you use the pen past the recommended 30 days?

Oh no, I never go past 30 days - I throw the pen away unfinished.

@Sampler so you know what the microdose dosage is?