Diarrhoea after second 5mg dose

[TinglyandCurious]

I’ve been happily on mounjaro since Christmas and have lost 3 stone so far. I’ve had minimal side effects since then but took my second 5mg jab last Wednesday (was just on 2.5mg and 3.75mg before then) and since yesterday morning have had diarrhoea and horrible sulphur burps. The diarrhoea is bad enough that I’ve called in sick to work this morning. Is this typical? Should I go back down to 3.75mg this Wednesday? I was fine after my first 5mg but guess it’s accumulating in my system.

Just surprised it’s come out of the blue. I guess it could be a bug but doesn’t quite feel like it. Thanks all.

Yes you are right, with the medication building up in your system the side effects can start at anytime.
The shotsy app is a good way of keeping an eye on levels each week. If you were still losing on 3.75 I’d move back down if I were you

shotsyapp.com/

I had this on my second 5 mg. I persevered with it and was fine the following two shots, and then had a much worse bout of diarrhoea again (5 endless days). At that point, my consultant told me to drop down to 3.75 mg, and to give it at least a couple of months before trying again.

I had to stop because of this happening to me. I had a break and now on my third month of Wegovy but not lost any weight. I'd lost two stone with MJ, stopped taking it and gained a stone very quickly. I shall persevere with Wegovy as I have stopped gaining weight and thankfully no side effects. The sulphur burps and diarrhoea were really bad and I was struggling.

I had about 9 days of diarrhoea on my first 5mg. No sulphur burns though. Never had any of those! 🤞

Thanks so much for your replies everyone.

@IReallyNeedThisToWork did you carry on as normal after that and have you been okay? I’m catastrophising slightly and scared I’ll end up having to come off it.

@KentishMama i think I’ll go back to 3.75mg this week to let my body recover.

I was still losing weight on 3.75mg but the food noise was returning by day 4. I’ll just have to see if I can use will power more the second half of the week. Still have 2 stone to go!

@Time4changeagain I had a look on Shotsy and the amount in my system over the last two days is actually less than it was directly after the last two 5mg injections so it’s confusing the symptoms should hit now. Sort of hoping it might be a bug but I guess we aren’t robots and sensitivities can show at any time. Thank you.

I had five days of awful diarrhoea after my second dose of 5mg. It was miserable! I ended up dropping back to 2.5mg by counting clicks on my 5mg pen, and have been fine since. I’m going to start dialling up the dosage very very slowly, by 5 clicks at a time or something. Don’t want that happening again! Sympathy to you.

Thanks so much for replying @Umthisisabitawkward, so sorry you had this too! I’m going to cut right back again too. That sounds like a good plan.

I went up to 5mg slowly - e.g. 3 for a couple of weeks, 3.5 for a couple of weeks and so on and was OK. I experienced eggy burps for the first time when I got to 5 so I have dropped down to 4 - and in the last couple of weeks I have taken the extra 1 four days later.

My husband went with the "take as prescribed" opinion and had a terrible time trying to go from 2.5 to 5. We thought it was food poisoning the first week from a chicken- sickness/diarrhoea/off work. Until the same thing happened the second week. He had a short break from Mounjaro then took 1.8 ish, then 2.5 and he is ok. He will either stay at 2.5 a while or go up slowly. He is very wary now.

Sounds like your poor husband had such a rough time @Winter2020. I think I had such good suppression on 2.5mg I might be one of those super responder types and I should have stuck at 3.75mg longer. I’m glad he’s taking it slowly and is still able to keep taking it. I’m worried I’ve buggered all this up for myself but I’m just feeling crap and negative 😂

It's really common. The main study says 18-23% of people experience diahrea.

Have you tried immodium? On the 5 jabs I think I had it after each jab around 5/6/7th 5mg jabs (not when I first went up bizarrely!). Immodium was fab though.

Gastric side effects are pretty much to be expected (nausea/diahrea/constipation) and I think most providers warn about it as it's a reason people give up (also in my mind another reason it's not just the "easy option" many non overweight people assume it is!)

Yes, I took loperamide after the five days of yuck, and it resolved the problem within a day. Then I didn’t poo for three days 😆 All good fun. I had quite good suppression on 2.5mg so I don’t know why I went up really. Having gone back down to 2.5 the suppression is marginally less I think (although hard to tell because we’ve been on holiday for a week, so surrounded by food), so I am going to creep up slowly on the dosage and pay very close attention to my symptoms. OP, I’m sure you haven’t mucked it all up entirely, please don’t worry. Or if you have, I have as well! (And I don’t think I have 🤔).

And yes agree please don't worry. It's part of adjusting to it all. I say that as I'm a chronic worrier everytime I get a symptom as I'm so worried ill have to come off.

Ironically now on my 3rd 5mg pen I've dealt with proper constipation and had to pull out the big guns!

I think I set it off as I had my first set of sulpher burps (I'm aiming for a full card in the side effects bingo here...) and discovered pepto bismol which was great for stomach stuff...

And then realised it can cause constipation!!

You need anti sickness and omeprazole to stop those side effects.

Thanks for being so kind and reassuring @FatsiaJaponicaInTheGarden and @Umthisisabitawkward ❤️ I’ve sent DH out for some immodium and I’ll suffer any potential constipation over this any day! You’re right about this being so common and honestly I think I’ve been incredibly lucky to get this far with minimal issues. Feeling bit more rational now 🙂

Hopefully it will wear off as you get more used to the drug.

TinglyandCurious yes that sounds like me too - fine on the first increased shot and then second one - it hits me. So I have just increased to 5mg after 12 weeks slowly moving up from 2.5mg and have tolerated it fine in week one but now nervous about the next shot tomorrow for week two. I have actually planned it so I have very little on (apart from work / school holidays!) as unfortunately I get both D&V (and sorry TMI but at the same time 🙄then it physically floors me for a couple of days). I have immodium at hand!

However maybe I might go back down tomorrow (as I am dreading to think I might be ill) - or should I just go for it knowing that I have to get up to this higher dose eventually as the food suppression on the lower one was noticeably reducing. Or maybe down just a bit - so 4mg perhaps - just wishing I had a crystal ball that could tell me which dose to do!

I have a friend also on it - same time period, and she has had zero side effects and is already at 12.5mg - so strange how it impacts people differently!

Although still would say the D&V is worth the weight loss overall!

@zazas it’s so hard to know what to do! I actually went up in lots of little doses between 2.5mg and 5mg (including 4mg for a week) so might be worth doing a half jump between the two and count the clicks again. Good luck either way, it’s definitely worth it overall but I was shocked by it all after so many weeks of being fine. Sorry it’s been a rough ride for you at times.

Thanks for the support. I’m thinking I might go for 4mg tomorrow. I’m just so nervous, I really struggle with the throwing up as last time it just came out of nowhere. Luckily I was working at home but still absolutely with no warning! Just bizarre to be honest!

Maybe you could do 4mg today and top up with 1mg later in the week if feeling okay? My tummy situation so much better this morning thank goodness but not perfect. Jab day tomorrow so will revert back to 3.75mg and see how it goes 🙂