So expensive, how do you choose?

[MrTiddlesTheCat]

The price differences between these medicines are huge so how do you choose?

Where I live the prices are fixed at approimately:

Mounjaro - £450 per month
Wegovy - £300 per month
Saxenda - £250 per month
Mysimba - £110 per month
Orlistat - £26 per month

I started the free weightloss 3 month programme funded by the public health service 2 weeks ago. So next week I get the option of discussing taking one of those listed above with the doctor. To be honest, the prices terrify me. But so does the thought of having a heart attack.

There's loads of threads on here about mounjaro and wegovy but has anyone had the others?

If I had to choose from your list with the costs, I’ll choose wegovy as it’s more effective than the others at the lower price point and given once a week. If money was no object, it’ll be mounjaro. Good luck whichever one you choose

@MrTiddlesTheCat could you order online from a UK company? Would it be any cheaper?

such as Medexpress

We deliver selected prescriptions medicines to the following countries: United Kingdom, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Malta, Sweden.

I'll have a look at that. I suspect not though. I once placed an order with chemist direct and swedish customs stopped it as it contained prescription items (nizoral shampoo which is only available on prescription here weirdly).

Thank you everyone for your advice. It has really helped me. I didn't realise there were different types of injections. Turns out the ones widely available in Sweden are single dose, hence why so expensive. But armed with what I've learnt here it seems the 4 dose pens have recently been approved but only for the two lowest doses. This would make it around £250 a month, much more manageable.

https://www.kronansapotek.se/hitta-produkter/?q=mounjaro&origin=PHRASE_SUGGEST

So I'll ask the doctor about those if he recommends mounjaro. I'm worried he might say I can't have any due to other medical issues.

What dose are you all finding works for you?

Sadly my fears are correct. We're not allowed to buy medicines online from outside the EU.

https://www.tullverket.se/privat/panatet/handlapanatet/handlalakemedelpanatet.4.7df61c5915510cfe9e7108b1.html#:~:text=Det%20%C3%A4r%20f%C3%B6rbjudet%20att%20handla,kosttillskott%20fr%C3%A5n%20l%C3%A4nder%20utanf%C3%B6r%20EES.

@MrTiddlesTheCat those prices are steep!

For info if you haven't seen it before, there is buffer liquid in the 4 dose pen which means you will be able to unofficially get 5 doses out of each pen (using the hard twist method or a syringe) which will help with costs a little. You will need to buy extra pen needles and/or syringes.

It might be worth checking whether it is available in an EU country more cheaply.

Some companies do pen bundles

Sounds crazy but could you contact one and check if tou could get a script in UK and get a cheap flight here and get a bundle of pens and put them in your checked bag?

Yeah I would do this tbh - Zava I know do a 3 month bundle, so 2.5; 5 and 7.5. If you have a friend or relative you can get it delivered to then collect and take home with you.

Just a little update. I had my dr's appointment earlier and he doesn't recommend any right now. Which I'm okay with as I'm terrified of injections.

We can only get weightloss medicine as part of a programme that involves weekly contact with a dietician and putting in the work to make lifelong changes. I'm 3 weeks in and this week was the first week where I had to actually start making changes. Not to what I eat, but to when. From that alone I haven't eaten any crap at all. The noise has been turned off completely and I've lost 3kg in this week alone.

So the doctor wants to wait and see if this continues to work for me because there's no point paying out so much if it turns out I don't actually need it.

My way of eating was a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch, mid afternoon lose control and eat a shit ton of chocolate (I don't even like chocolate), then planned healthy dinner goes out the window and eat shit dinners like takeaways or frozen pizza.

Dietician way of eating is healthy breakfast, healthy mid morning snack, healthy lunch, something sweet that actually like as midafternoon snack (I love custard so have that with banana), then a healthy dinner which I now have the energy to prepare.

For the first time in decades I actually feel in control of what I'm eating.