Best provider for maintenance?

[AnitaLoos]

I’ve done really well on Mounjaro and am just half a stone from my goal of a BMI of 24. But what now? What are people doing about maintaining please? If I was a millionaire I’d stay on it forever but I’m not. Ideally I’d like the option to take it as and when I need it so eg if I gain half a stone, do it for a month. Does any provider give this option? Or do they offer a low dose for less money? Will talk to my provider but keen to see what other people are doing.

I am nowhere near maintenance yet, I have seen the Oushk maintenance plans which allow you to potentially reintroduce the medication when needed after a consultation. They charge £20/month to remain on that plan and if you do decide to buy a pen you get 15% off. If you google "Oushk maintenance" you will be able to see the details.

There might be other providers that do similar without the monthly fee.

I'm with Ouskh and very happy with their flexible, personalised approach to maintenance. This includes coming off and going back on later but as you're approaching BMI 24, you would need to have a consultation to see if they're happy to take you on now. Other pharmacies are catching up with Ouskh a bit (they were one of the first to put together an option for maintenance). Have also heard good things about Pharmulous just recently, but again not sure if they'd take on a new customer at such a low BMI, but first step would recommend speak to own prescriber as you'll have a better idea of next steps. For example if they don't offer anything, you might want to move before your weight gets too low.

OP many pharmacies offer good maintenance plans without making it a separate deal. You just continue ordering and some will allow one month on and one month off without starting from 2.5mg.You just need to email and ask them instead of paying to speak to someone at Oushk business. Any pharmacy will be happy to speak to you about it.

Other pharmacies were offering maintenance both before and at the same time but Oushk is the first and only provider to turn it into a paid consultation and paying to 'stay on their books' for "maintenance plans" because they saw a gap in the market to also make money from that angle. They are a business after all as opposed to just a pharmacy. The owner has worked with a few pharmacies as well before branching out to start her own Oushk brand.

You'll likely be pushed to Oushk though because that's the current 'IT-girl' brand business Aesthetician Derma-filler Pharmacy around here and on Facebook and their people on mumsnet and other social media forums swear they're the only ones who know their onions and set the bar. A word of advice is to just look around before you join the clique as they're now offering special discount codes (to people on social media especially tiktok) - something the fan club swore they don't do.

@OushkSmoushk
Blimey! Was all that really necessary?Just trying to help, AnitaLoos, and can only go off my own experience... I'm not paid to plug them 😅
Never been called an it girl before. Should I be insulted or take it as a compliment I wonder.

@OushkSmoushk what's with the Oushk hate? Did they send you a pen full of 💩 or something? 😂

Yes they do seem to have a slightly cultish fan following, but each to their own. I was a bit sad to see they've turned to the dark side with the TikTok influencer referrals - I imagine that might ding their Trustpilot score!

I'm not near maintenance but have been trying to keep up. I heard one person saying Cloud allowed them to do one month on, one month off, I'm not aware of any others that allow you to take a break from the med and go back on, though, that seemed to be an Oushk USP - would like to hear of others that do for when the time comes, as I'd like to see if I can go it alone at least for a bit while preserving the option to go back on the meds.

@HippoPortlyMouse
Yes, there was a right ding dong on their FB page about using influencers, last night. The pharmacist came on line to say it was a trial and she's not keen but decided to see what impact it has, given that many other places are using it - decision is under review so we'll see. It didn't help the cause that the influencer who triggered the row gave out wrong and potentially unsafe information about injecting, then started insulting members who pointed this out. All very unsavoury.

I’m currently just over BMI 25 so still overweight and need to lose just over half a stone to get my BMI to 24 so not there yet! I have asked my pharmacy what they can offer in terms of maintenance but want to look at my options. I would simply stay on it if I won the lottery but can’t afford to do that.

Grateful for any feedback

Oh that's much easier then - I assumed you were 24 something from your post. I'm pretty sure most prescribers would happily take you on at over 25, although most would, I think, ask for details of your previous prescriptions and weight loss history for safeguarding reasons. There's a good maintenance UK group on Reddit if you're on there - lots of people have posted their experiences of a number of different pharmacies. I think many of us have only just hit this point so there's lots of new info being shared as pharmacies try to get to grips with a new situation.

@OushkSmoushk

This is quite a detailed critic of Oushk! It's honestly a bit strange how much energy AGAIN is going into critiquing a business for simply... being a business. All pharmacies, are free to set their own models. If they want to offer paid consultations and maintenance plans, that's their decision. It's no secret that businesses are there to make money; it doesn't necessarily mean they are shady.
What’s your goal here? You seem to have a real issue with one pharmacy just for operating like a business. If other pharmacies offer maintenance plans without fees and that works better for someone, great! But it's strange to see so much focus on discrediting one company instead of recommending one you have dealt with yourself. 🤔

@WeAllHaveWings
Good points, well made. This isn't the first time is it? I thought the name was familiar. Strange decision to base a username on a company you apparently abhor. Wonder who he/she is being paid by?
Bet he/she is really hacked off they offer 15% off and free postage on all their maintenance plans. And have 5 star customer reviews on Trust Pilot.

I've never seen a Facebook group pop off like that! It looked like it was still going this morning

I know, me neither. Shame the whole thing was deleted as there was nowt on the telly and it was very entertaining (in a depressing kind of way). Did spot someone trying to provoke a re-match this morning but that got pulled pretty quick which was just as well as I had to bath the dog.

@KrankyKumquat - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't late for work this morning reading all of it with my popcorn 😂

I do like Oushk, but the fb group is a tad cultish sometimes

I like Oushk too and understand they are a young company, I just had a delivery from them today.

I missed last nights drama, but from the posts this morning I thought they had murdered puppies or something equally abhorrent rather than a social media marketing cock up. Think I even saw a post from the prescribers dh trying to take responsibly/divert the flack by saying it was his idea 🤣

Not sure if the "we are so disappointed in you that we might go elsewhere", or, the sucking up "we appreciate you" posts were worse!

@WeAllHaveWings
'murdered puppies' 😂
It was completely bonkers. And yes, bet it was a slightly moody atmosphere in the Hira house last night 😅

Could you afford to stay on a very low dose for 6 months to see if you can keep weight off? I'm on Ozempic and I still have a long way to go but have lost over 4 stone. That's what I plan to do when I reach the target weight.

Damn I missed all the fun on Oushk by the sounds of it.
I unfollowed the group a couple of days ago because I got sick of all the sucking up.
I may use them when I get to thinking about maintenance but am hoping others will have equally good plans by then to give more options.

If anyone is into reddit, they have a sub (group) just on maintenance and are gathering info on the pharmacies and how helpful they all are, might be of use to have a look at. It is called something like mounjaro maintenance UK.

These ones seem to have met with approval:

Cloud
Oushk
Pharmulous
Simple online pharmacy

I'm with Oushk. I don't really engage with any of the social media stuff but I did notice the stooshie this morning in the group! But I've been happy with them so far, orders dealt with promptly, no referral codes (currently, and I hope it stays that way as I find it all a bit distasteful!) but they give discount codes often, you can order for future dates, my husband made a mistake with a detail on his first order and they rang him quickly and resolved it. Don't think they're the cheapest but I've got my last two 5 pens for about £135 which is fine really and much cheaper than Asda, who I was with before.

Haha co-incidentally I changed to Oushk today, definitely wasn’t the cheapest but as my BMI is now less than 25 want to get somewhere with decent maintenance plan that won’t throw me out. If my BMI was higher would just go with whoever is cheapest for now. Think monj.co.uk is great for finding cheapest provider by dose.

I'm with Oushk but missed what happened - was it Bilal sharing codes on TikTok?

I have deleted TikTok because I was being flooded with Mounjaro content and it was horrendous - I did notice Bilal on there subtly promoting Oushk but without admitting openly it was his company which I thought a bit odd.

I like the pair of them, admire them starting the company etc and trying to keep a personalised customer-focused approach - the FB fan-girling is something to behold though - it's just a business trying to make money at the end of the day!

@85reasons
No I think it was more that it was Bilal's idea to try using influencers, giving them their own discount code to share on Tiktok (for the same amount as the discount shared on FB and in customer emails). Unfortunately, one of these women shared her video on the FB group too, it was full of wrong information about how to inject, and she became abusive when people pointed this out. It was so entertaining I missed Emmerdale 😅

Yes a lot of people moan about the £5 initial consultation fee but as it's only Hira doing them all (and I bet they take up most of her day at the moment), I'm sure no-shows were an issue. She'd also get a fair few from non-customers who've heard how accessible and helpful she is or who are just in the FB group, I'm sure. Makes absolute sense to start a small charge. Same as the £20 'holding plan' - why would a business offer monthly one to one video calls and limitless advice plus maintain patient records for nothing? But I do wonder if the price of this one might come down in time as others copy the model.

The fan girls are definitely a thing but interestingly, only ever noticed them on FB so think it might be something to do with FB's demographic these days (I'm not on Tiktok, I'm 58 for lawds sake; hence my amusement at being called an It girl).

@KrankyKumquat I'm 54 so am almost with you 😁

Yes FB is such an odd place - it's become very 'lowest common denominator' and I agree Hira's approach to be super helpful and accessible has to have a limit for her own sanity at least.

It's going to be very interesting to see how the GLP-1 market responds to patients' needs for ongoing support and maintenance over the next year or two.