How much per month - weight loss jab

[GinNphonics]

Hi,
How much on average do you spend on weight loss injections per month. I have just purchased from medexpress for £115 (with discount) I'm presuming i won't need to purchase anything else until next month?

You purchase a pen a month approximately, assuming you stick generally to the standard injection schedule. The pens get more expensive as you move up the doses, so it depends on which dose you settle on as a long term dose. I have done one pen at 2.5mg, then one at 5mg, then 7.5mg for the next 7 pens for example. I haven't had to buy a 10, 12.5 or 15mg pen yet.

If you shop around and change suppliers each order, you can take advantage of the new customer discounts, otherwise you are paying full price or sometimes companies offer a smaller discount for continuing customers. Or sometimes a general discount code, there were a lot of those in January for example.

You can get an idea of the range of prices and discounts on this price comparison website:

https://monj.co.uk/discount-mounjaro-price-list/

This is the full price (no discounts) list from the same website:

https://monj.co.uk/mounjaro-price-list-non-discounted/

I probably paid a bit over what I could have for my first few pens, but I was happy with the provider I had chosen and was reluctant to change. But I have recently changed to a new supplier and will do again to get a better price if needs be.

Some providers like MedExpress have referral codes you can try to give out to people, and if they use your code you get a discount (£40 for MedExpress atm) but obviously that depends on people using your code when they sign up as a new customer. So it's not a guarantee or predictable as to whether anyone would use it.

Hi do you mind me asking how long before you noticed weight loss, like do you lose weekly?
thank you

@Queenofheart it's like any weight loss programme, it varies a lot! It also depends on how you personally react to the medication. The first dose level of 2.5mg is not intended to produce weight loss for most people, it's a starting dose level. You stay on that for 4 weeks. For a minority of people, that starting dose does produce weight loss. Some people need to get to the 5mg dose level or even higher before experiencing weight loss. Some may even need to work up to the 15mg before seeing any significant effect. Some people don't ever respond to the medication. But, most people will be losing 1 to 2 pounds a week.

For me, the important thing is that it makes it a lot easier to be consistent. I've had one week where I had a 1 pound gain, and a couple of weeks with 0 weight lost, but I have lost weight on 32 out of 34 weeks to date. It all adds up,

If you're very responsive to the medication and if you're a very high starting weight, the initial losses can be quite high. But that would be true if you were doing Fast 800, or a VLCD too.

Thank you. That's helpful. I guess what I'm asking is it should never be more that around the £200 mark?

No, I think £200 is the higher end of the max dose pricing at the moment.
I know if some people who have never moved off the smallest (cheapest!) dose and got to their goals.

Most providers seem to include the needles and some wipes with the orders, some you have to add as an extra, so just check that when comparing the price. I ordered from medexpress and got everything Inc sharps bin with first order. Very handy.

Are prices coming down overall? You'd have thought with the competition they would be but maybe not for a while longer still?

@GinNphonics even the higher doses shouldn't be £200 if you're prepared to shop around. In fact much less than that usually.

I only know of The Family Chemist who don't include needles in their prices, but they make it clear you need to add them to the order. Every other provider they are included in the price. Some charge for delivery and some don't, delivery charges can range from £3.50 to £10 so factor that in. A sharps bin should be standard for your first order, but they are about £4 from Amazon if you need to get one separately. Wipes are also cheap to buy, a box of a hundred is a few pounds.

One thing that you might see being discussed is people using the leftover medication that's in the pen after doing the usual four doses. There's additional liquid in the pen to allow for priming the needle each time, but it's usually enough for an extra dose. The issue with that is that the pen mechanism locks after doing the 4 doses. You can try to force the mechanism to twist, and then use the pen to do a 5th dose. But sometimes it doesn't work and/or then mechanism breaks and won't deliver an injection. So some people will buy separate syringes and manually extract the liquid from the pen for a 5th dose.

Clearly that's not something that's in the guidance or something that the supplier would suggest or approve of. It would be up to you to decide if you wanted to try it.

I've never paid more than £156 and I'm now on 12.5mg, think I've used 4 different pharmacies to keep prices low.

@tobee there isn’t any competition though as Mounjaro is only produced by one company so, however heated the fight between pharmacies become, they all still have to pay the same price for the product.

I've just ordered my first 12.5mg pen, from MedExpress. £203.94 including p&p.
It comes with wipes and needles.

@BrownJenkins wow that's expensive.

Wow. It's £135 at Medicine Marketplace, or £139.99 at Pharmacy2U or WePrescribe.

Ah yes of course! 😁

I suppose that could change if the much talked of non branded copies (can't remember actual term) and other non mounjaro but just as good drugs get licensed. And the pill form if they can get that to work.

Medicine Marketplace charge £10 for p&p so you do have to factor that in to the price but yes, as you say there are significantly cheaper options available than £200+!

Thank you all for your replies. Very helpful. Wishing you all luck on your journey

Great thank you
I’d like to lose 2.5/3 stone

I’ve ordered mine today

do you get Instant loss of appetite?

No, not necessarily, or even commonly. The first 4 weeks of 2.5mg each week are not intended to produce effects. Some people do respond to that level of dose. It takes between 8 and 72 hours for the medication to peak in your system after an injection before it starts to wear off. So most people find they get 2 to 4 days of reduced appetite which wears off towards the end of the week. If they respond at the 2.5mg level.

Are the prescriptions transferable?
Once you've been issued it I mean. I'm on my first 2.5mg pen.
Can I just sign up to another provider and go straight in with a higher dose or do I have to do all the pictures and weighing again?

You need to do pictures and weigh again for a new prescriber as well as send a photo of your most recent prescription, either a picture of the box or some accept a screenshot of the last providers website I think.

Takes 20 mins rather than 10 mins to re order with the same place but worth it for the savings a lot of times.

@ThursdaysMonkey each prescription is for one injection pen/order. Even with the same company when you order the next pen you have to fill out the consultation again. It's usually quicker because they've saved you previous answers so you can just check them, update with any changes and apply.

To move to a different company, you just fill out their consultation form which will include a question about whether you're already taking an injection and if so, what and what dose. You then need to provide evidence of your previous prescription. Often a photo of the medication box with the named prescription label visible. Then they approve and prescribe the dose you're after.

@SilenceInside @femininomenon fab, thanks. I ordered a 2.5mg and a 5mg in my first go, so I am OK for a few weeks still, but this is good to know.