Boots have turned me down for Mounjaro

[Illegally18]

Hallo, I have finally bitten the bullet and applied to Boots Online Doctors for Mounjaro weight loss jabs. I filled in an extensive questionnaire, and one section was about Eating Disorders. ('have you had or do you suffer from'). I ticked 'yes'' to all three, Anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder. I clearly specified that it was all over now. I was refused by Boots because of the Eating Disorders. I wrote back and asked them to reconsider their decision, since these disorders happened in my teens, (and therefore 50 years ago) and that I am now 65. Second refusal. Why? Would anyone on MN have any idea as to why? I am puzzled.

My friend lied and got approved - she currently weighs about 37kg and gets very upset with herself if she eats 'bad' food and compulsively makes herself sick after 'bad' meals. Her eating disorder has also been over for years but it was re-triggered and honestly - it's scary. She seesaws between 'I can wear my 9 year old's clothes' and 'just a couple more kilos will make me happy'.

For the record I'm not anti WLI - I take them and have got to a healthy bmi - because they suited my medical history.

Which pharmacy is still prescribing these to her? Unless she is supplying fake photos they are not doing their due diligence here.

37kg?! I’m very short and that would make even my BMI significantly underweight

How would they know that though?

presumably they would need some evidence like letter from doctor or psychiatrist, blood test results, live videos of you etc to confirm you don’t have an eating disorder. But even then, there’s risk. I’m not surprised you were turned down.

Unfortunately not usually the case with eating disorders, they never truly leave most people hence why they won’t give you a drug that causes rapid weight loss. Sorry OP, but surely applying a bit of common sense here would’ve told you that??

Exactly! they could have asked for a doctor's letter.

As it was so long ago I’d apply somewhere else and not mention it. If you’ve been fine for 50 years it’s irrelevant.

A doctor probabaly wouldn’t give one for the exact same reason!!

Maybe, but my particular doctor has known me for many years.

I mean, your doctor is not going to put their reputation and livelihood on the line to advocate for someone with a history of anorexia to be prescribed weight loss injections.

I’d very much think they wouldn’t want to get involved and a no is a no. It’s not really that confusing or puzzling of a situation. You are presenting as an unsuitable patient with red flags in your history, and they would have to accept liability if anything went wrong as a result of you taking weight loss injections. No matter how much your doctor is fond of you, they’re not going to risk their career for you.

Thank you for your reply. No, my doctor isn't 'fond' of me in any way, but he does have a good idea of my mental health and stability. I understand that he doesn't want to put his reputation at risk, but, as I said, he has seen me through some life events and so knows me. I have booked an appointment with him so we shall see.

But all the answers here have been very illuminating and interesting. I had no idea that Boots have a 'blanket policy' re eating disorders. And no, I will not go to another on-line pharmacy and lie, as a PP suggested. I don't want to risk my physical or mental health. I don't have a history of anorexia, I had an adolescence with it. Never again. It's over. Eating disorders have gone. I just don't have the drive.

But still, how times have changed! When I had anorexia , there was still an Iron Curtain, John Lennon was still alive, Chair Mao and Charlie Chaplin had just died, and Margaret Thatcher was coming into power. AIDS and Chernobyl was for the future.

At the time, re anorexia, I was fobbed off with; 'do you have a boyfriend', 'you just need a good screw and, 'many middle class girls have anorexia' and, to my mind, the absolute pearl of comments; 'think how lucky you are not to have a drugs problem' . What if I had taken drugs? Would Boots allow me to have the injections? In 2025 I discover have a problem; in 1975 I was just a sheltered little middle class white girl.