What’s all this celebrity talk about WLI making them go blind?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

It’s starting to worry me. My eyesight has deteriorated with age but I don’t like the idea that WLI could actively be making it worse!

I know Robbie Williams has come out saying that he thinks Mountjaro is making him lose his sight. Then today I see the headline in the Mail that the columnist Jenni Murray is also claiming the same. What’s going on do we think?

Im on a long term maintenance dose of Wegovey as it’s been nothing short of a miracle for the long term chronic health problem that I’ve had for thirty years. I do t want to go blind though.

I had an eye test last summer (age 48) and my eyes were still fine. The optician said that's fairly unusual so I could expect to start needing reading glasses within a couple of years. I started MJ in the Sep, took it until March 25 losing 5 stone.

By Feb this year I realised I could no longer see small print/screens clearly so had another eye test and now have low prescription reading glasses.

It did feel like MJ/weight loss had an impact or maybe accelerated the process but then again I am exactly the right age for needing reading glasses despite having had 20/20 vision all my life, as the first optician pointed out.

In Wales the diabetes consultant at my local hospital is not allowed to prescribe doses above 5mg/ml to diabetic patients.

He told me he finds it very frustrating, because many of the patients he sees are morbidly obese and would benefit from the higher doses (up to 15mg/ml) that some tier 3 weight management services in England are able to prescribe. He said he thought it was a short sighted decision, that would end up costing the NHS more in the long run, but that is very common in a lot of UK service provision. So he fully approved of my going privately, and I now take one 5mg/ml injection courtesy of the NHS and one privately paid for 10mg/ml injection each week, with his blessing.

The NHS in Wales is so far behind the times that they are still offering bariatric surgery instead of GLP-1 injections to their morbidly obese patients who manage to jump through all the hoops of the 3 tier weight management programme.

My friend in Cambridge was prescribed Wegovy after completing tier 3 but the side effects were so bad she asked to be switched to Mounjaro. She was told that while they fully intended rolling out Mounjaro to their obese patients that would require them retraining staff and printing out new information leaflets, which wasn't in the budget yet, and nobody had any clue when they would be able to start making the changes.

More recently she spoke to the nurse in charge of rolling out Mounjaro prescriptions to NHS patients in her area, and was told that it has been quite difficult to find any patients who fit the NHS criteria which are "a BMI of 40 or higher, and a minimum of 4 out of these 5 chronic health conditions; type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obstructive sleep apnoea, and abnormal blood fat levels".

The fact that she has a BMI well over 50, and suffers from 3 of those 5 conditions, is insufficient. The nurse regretfully informed her that being crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, coeliacs disease, hypothyroidism, PCOS, having worn out hip and knee joints and needing a wheelchair (on the rare occasions when she is able to leave the house) doesn't count.

Unless she has an official diagnosis of at least 4 of the 5 listed diseases she can't be added to the group. Though the nurse did say that it was turning out to be so hard to find enough patients that do qualify within the area that it didn't look as if the group would get off the ground, unless the criteria were relaxed slightly.

Meanwhile she is in constant pain, with worn out hips and knees, that all should have been replaced years ago, but no surgeon will operate on her (even if she paid privately) because her BMI is too high.

To be fair my gp can go up the doses, she was the one who recommended the drug to me, and told me the best results were at the higher doses. But I think a lot of them don’t due to cost as they have prescribing budgets set. So even when technically they can, they don’t. But obviously don’t tell patients it’s as they’ve a prescribing budget. It’s the reason they always go for the cheapest medication when prescribing other drugs.

It’s been confirmed that Wegovy / Ozempic can lead to vision loss and the information leaflet has now been updated to include this as based on this article, they’ve just awarded 3 people in Denmark compensation for vision loss as a result of the drug this week.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/denmark-compensates-patients-vision-loss-linked-novo-nordisk-drugs-2025-11-21/

Based on the article, the risk is low so like 1 in 10000 and being obese is risky as well but no one can say all the side effects are known because the more people take the jab, the more things come to light after. Everyone just has to make a cost benefit decision really

I know someone on Mounjaro for diabetes and her doctor won't prescribe it above 7.5mg because it's not for obesity. Although she is obese, probably not coincidentally.

It’s interesting reading the different rules doctors are following for Diabetes prescriptions.

Mine is following the NICE guidelines which I have read as when I approached the conversation to ask for it with the diabetes team I thought I’d get push back and refused.

The guidance says that the 2.5/7.5/12.5 doses are transitional only to get to the next full dose so should be for periods of 4 weeks only. The 5mg/10mg/15mg doses should be used for as long as they remain effective rather than following a specific schedule to increase.

I stayed on 5mg for 20 weeks, then a combination of rising blood sugar and slowing weight loss justified moving me up. I have stayed on 10mg since then (about 35 weeks on 10mg I think) as my blood sugar has been stable, I’m at healthy BMI now so weight loss is no longer important and I’m not gaining.

Has there been research on this though?

A simple google brings up this

Yes there has been plenty of research into the side effects of GLP1 medication. Hence the awareness of the issues around diabetic retinopathy for people with T2 diabetes who may need or want to take GLP1s. And the more recent question about NAION which needs further investigation. Research into these medications is ongoing.

My point was that a popstar complaining about needing glasses, and a journalist who has long talked about her failing eyesight are not evidence of an issue. No one should be making any kind of decisions about their individual health circumstances based on these kinds of articles.

Well, except as of this week, the manufacturers themselves have admitted their jab can lead to vision loss in 1 in 10000 people, maybe the popstar and the journalist are some of the 1 in 10000 people. Obviously their voice is louder because of who they are but no one can categorically say that because a medication has been around for years, it means all the side effects are known because even the manufacturers cannot make that claim.

Well, no, Robbie Williams and Jenni Murray have not had NAION. So they are most definitely not in the possible 1 in 10,000. And they both took Mounjaro, not Wegovy/Ozempic, so not the same medication.

Mounjaro is also linked to diabetic retinopathy so you can’t categorically say their symptoms are not linked and that they’re just trying to be relevant by claiming they’re losing their sight.
If some side effects of Wegovy/ Ozempic that has been around longer than mounjaro is just coming to light then surely nothing is an absolute.
I certainly don’t want any negative side effects coming to light but saying those people speaking up are just trying to stay relevant without anything to prove they’re lying or have a reason to lie just sound like gaslighting really.

Neither of these two are T2 diabetic though, so they aren't going to have developed diabetic retinopathy...

Everything that I am stating is what they have written or said themselves in the articles published. I would hope that people would be able to see that is not "gaslighting".