Who do you regret telling that you're taking the injections?

[HolyCowrie]

Just that really.

I'll be starting in October. I'm probably going to keep it to myself and DH at first. I'm interested in your experiences of telling people and especially if you've kind of regretted it, please.

I told my DH and a friend at work knows because he told me he was on them (I'd not really heard of them before and so investigated after and signed up with SheMed). Family members, who hadn't seen me for a while, commented positively on my weight loss. Someone mentioned WLI but didn't ask me directly if I'd used them. I said that I'd increased protein, obsessively calorie counted and didn't deprive myself - all of which is true.

My take is that I'm not obliged to put my hand up if someone asks if I've ever taken anti-depressants, or to give details of the reconstructive vaginal surgery I had after having my son ("did the birth go well?", "yes, all good thanks"), so why on earth would I be obliged to divulge this?

I told my DH and my mum to start with, and was glad I told them (especially as I got some bad side effects to start). But when I told my MIL and a friend after a couple of months, it felt pretty awful. They both reacted really weirdly, and tbh I felt so judged by it that I instantly regretted it! I’ve not told anyone else. Although I’m sure my MIL has told her family and that also pisses me off

Told no one (not even my family) and denied it if asked. It’s private.

I have told DH, teenage DS and a few close friends. One I work with everyday, one is also considering them, and then one I wasn’t going to tell but actually she was very positive.

There are definitely people I will not tell though.

They’re also on it!

I tell anyone who says “ooooh you’ve lost a lot of weight!” Yes, yes I have and it’s alllll thanks to my skinny jabs! I’m not ashamed of my beloved mounjaro!

I've had colleagues say 'wow, you're literally half the size you were, how come ?' or 'oo you look cool in those jeans' etc. I just say ' thanks, I'm am using weight loss jabs with exercise and healthy eating to avoid dying early and not being able to see my kids get married. Isn't that great ?'. They shut the fuck up from there on in. People can be grade A arseholes sadly. Others can be really lovely. I choose to own my stuff my way. Respect to you all.

I agree
a friend of mine is absolutely crippled with jealously and rage that she cannot afford them and admits that fact openly.
people around her, myself included have lost several stone and I think it is eating her alive. I totally get that and if I were her I would be taking a second job early mornings or evenings to pay for them, but she knows that if she did that her DH who is grafting hard himself and doing all the hours he can as they are skint would expect any extra to go in the family pot to take the pressure off.
I feel for her and we try to stay off the subject. It has virtually destroyed one of her close friendships with a very old school friend of ours who has lost 7 stone - around what friend needs to lose and is unrecognisable, shouting it from the rooftops and the happiest we have ever seen her.
They are a blessing for a lot of us but for those for whom they remain out of reach must be horrific

And anyone starting now has to pay higher prices along with the real possibility of the 5th dose being removed .

On this note I think the friend I have mentioned above was initially secretly pleased about the increases as hoped that it would make them inaccessible to those of us in the friendship group that can afford them currently. Again no judgement here as I get how awful she must feel that even at a lower price they would be out of reach to her. I nipped this in the bud before othe less understanding friends noticed by saying that from my perspective they would have to go up to around 400/500 quid a month before I’d even consider eeking the clicks or faffing about in some of the ways mentioned on here

it’s deffo fast becoming something that initially appeared to level the playing field but is rapidly another way that the well off can and the less well off absolutely can’t

Yes I have another friend, more a loose friend who is like rhis, she’s asked rhe doctor for them even considered those daft patches, and she’s clearly jealous and resentful as she can’t afford them. Lots of bitter little comments about people lying, flat arses, muscle loss etc.

it’s just my take, but also a lot of the nonsense I see on line with people basically saying don’t take them for whatever bingo card reason they chose, and a lot of the negativity in real life, I think is usually down to simple jealousy and resentment, people can often make others success about them personally.

however I can see if you’re struggling with your weight, either to stay in control, or as you’re over weight, and can’t get if off, and you can see everyone becoming slim , but the drugs are out of reach for you, it would piss you right off. But for me it’s better to just own that, to say I’d love them but can’t get them, than to attack and belittle, scaremonger etc, I guess it all depends on what kind of person you are.

I think most negativity comes from women (particularly in middle age) who are heavier than they would like but not a high enough BMI to qualify. The people who lie to get them are also fuelling a lot of this too.

In my world ( social services so predominantly female work force) many of those- if they can afford them - are circumnavigating the BMI issues by adding kilos eh layers and knocking off few inches of height etc. Or going to the black market eh. beauticians etc that will prescribe/friends that qualify to order for them etc etc

I think those who want them get them - it’s cash flow that’s the main barrier in my experience and yes this leads to incredible resentment against those around them dropping huge amounts of weight and living their best lives

I would crawl though shit to get my beloved mj and pay double the price - I totally get the bad feeling from those that remain in fat and food noise prison, very unhappy with the jabs so close but so far away.

I actually don’t know anyone who lied to get the jabs, and so many millions are overweight, bmi 27 with some related health conditions usually doesn’t look that fat at such, although it is overweight.

I don’t doubt there is people who do it, we see it on here a lot, and people who buy on the black market, it’s a lot of people in absolute numbers but no way to verify how many, albeit a small proportion of the millions and millions eligible, and of course it’s all tightened up now

i agree that cost is usually the issue for the huge amount of people who are eligible and can’t get them

we also have fhe ones who are a healthy weight, look it, so can’t access, don’t want to take black market stuff, but struggle every day with deprivation etc, so find it galling that they need to work so hard and they perceive others don’t.

and that can result in a lot of negativity for the individual where they start behaving judgementally or attacking.

I've lost a third of my body weight over the last 2yrs and it would be disingenuous not to admit that I needed medical help to drop those 5 stones. Especially since I'd been overweight since my teens.

Not many have asked me directly but I have been upfront when I have. Nobody would dare accuse me of cheating to my face even if that is what they thought. I have still worked on my diet and increased my exercise but it was much easier to do this when my brain was working with me and not sabotaging every step.

The thing is, that's not true. I've lost a significant amount of weight in the last few months from going very low carb. I'm just finding it much easier to stick with as a lifestyle than I used to (maybe something to do with menopause?)

Anyway, I'm sure some people are assuming it's weight loss injections. Could I give a shit? No. I would totally do WLI if low carb stops working for me. I was going to do it in the first place, but my doctor suggested trying low carb first and then she would prescribe WLI if that didn't work out. So far it's working out.

If people ask me if I'm on WLI, I'll say no, but probably some of them won't believe me (at least Absentosaur won't). Again, I won't give a shit.

WLI are a brilliant invention and I'm sorry to see that people are encountering so much stigma around them. If I start them, I'll probably be very public about it, but then I'm in the lucky position of not having to care what anyone thinks about it. Not everyone has that luxury. The sooner this stigma goes, the better.

I haven’t told anyone at all and don’t intend to. Getting comments all the time as I’ve lost 4.5stone now bmi from 35 to 24. I answer with honesty - I’m going through a really dreadful messy divorce and an under extreme stress. This is true! It kickstarted the weight loss and then I decided to lean into it and start WLI in March because maybe it would help me feel better to lose more and get to a healthy bmi. It’s been a journey! I eat sensibly and I work out a lot which is also helping my MH with everything I’m going through. No one has suggested WLI once they hear everything else I am going through. Like others, I see it as a tool but the reality for me is that the other factors at play are much much more impactful than just the medicine.

Only told hubby and then one very close friend - no one else knows and that's how it's staying. Been on it 6 mths.

The sooner this stigma goes, the better

I think it’s perceived as a stigma, but it’s not, it’s envy and resentment, dressed up as stigma, having what others want, but can’t have, so they put it down, make out it’s shameful, disgraceful, cheating, foolhardy, dangerous. when in reality they’d give anything for what they perceive to be a little injection once a week and your magically slim,

of course that’s not how it works, but folks ignore that. And most people do it for health reasons, not vanity, but they ignore that too. This is the only weight loss method that comes under this sort of negetivity from those who can’t access the drugs, and that’s as it works. No one is out there giving a shit about slimming world or fast 800, as everyone knows it does not work long term , but this, something you can take, become slim, stay on for life, remain slim, not feel deprived, that is something to really envy.

I've lost 5 and a half stone in the past 18 months without using injections, you can't assume everyone is lying. I've no objections to them and great for people who benefit from them it's just not the road I chose and the smug side eyes from people who think they're gotcha-ing me by making incorrect assumptions are irritating.

I had no choice. The friend I started this journey with has no boundaries and told anyone who would listen that he was taking them and SEPTIC IS DOING IT WITH ME.

I had to have words. Anytime someone complemented me when he was there and I couldn't just say "thank you" and move on. It had to be a whole detailed conversation about fucking mounjaro, how much I'd lost, how much he's lost, what we were eating. Such a BORE for the poor person who was just making a nice comment.

He still does not get it. Even told my sons who I had deliberately chosen not to tell so that they just saw my healthy eating and excercise to try and encourage them to take up healthier habits.

I have told my husband, and one friend, who is a journalist and I tipped her off that the price of the injections was going up *here as well as in the U.K. for a story - at which point she said she was on Mounjaro herself! And hadn’t heard about the price increase.

*I live abroad but where I live sources GLP-1s from the U.K.

I have lost 16 pounds so far and dropped a dress size but nobody has remarked on it, I’m still wearing the same loose floaty clothes as before.

if anyone mentions me losing weight I will say, truthfully, that I am now seeing an endocrinologist who has overhauled my medications for my auto immune disease, and it’s now working out great for me.

In the last ten years I have been post partum heavy unable to lose weight, then very thin (my thyroid went beserk in my early 40s and I crashed into early menopause after having a baby at 40), extremely athletic and fit to obese. People who know me well know I’ve had health issues, that I enjoy exercising and generally live a healthy lifestyle, and that the weight gain is connected to the health issues so I hope they will be happy for me that I am looking more like my healthy self again. I don’t bore them with a litany of all my symptoms and medications normally so I don’t see any reason to start telling them now.

It really is
if we lost our jobs and income tomo the first thing i would worry about was not losing my houses but not being able to afford MJ. I would see it akin to losing my freedom and being sent back to a dark miserable relentless prison of my own body as it became huge again and the return of the food noise torture
All of my own making of course but something I cannot escape without help x

DH and DD know because I live with them and my change in food choices is very noticeable.

My best friend knows as I don't want to lie if she ask about my weightloss and why I don't want the glass of wine or chocolate she offers.

I do think some colleagues my be suspecious but I honestly don't care.

I told my husband, siblings and one friend. Mostly positive support with the odd annoying comment about 'not getting too thin' (I am a least a stone off the maximum healthy weight for my height).