I want to use my 9 month Mounjaro stockpile but I worry I won’t find a prescriber once it’s used up.

[Choux]

I have about 9 months Mounjaro stockpiled. I want to stop ordering and use it up but I am worried I will struggle to get a prescription in 9 months time. My BMI is 23-24 so I could not return as a new overweight customer. I would need to be accepted as a maintenance customer.

I accept I would have to restart on 2.5mg and then work my way up again to whatever dose I need for maintenance. That might be the kickstart I need to reduce my dose from the 10mg I currently take. I am even open to trying Ogovy tablets or any new tablets that come to market for maintenance in 2027. I just don’t want to be prevented from ordering anything when I run out of my current pens.

Does anyone have experience of taking a longish break and then getting re prescribed Mounjaro with a sub 25 BMI? Which providers have been doing that? And should I talk to them now or is that pointless as rules etc might change over the next 9 months?

There are a couple of pharmacies, Swift Doctor being one for sure, that you can take up to a 12 month break from ordering. You'd book a maintenance consultation and state that's what you intend to do, so they have it on record.

https://swift-doctor.com/pages/maintenance

I wouldn't consider Wegovy tablets until you had tapered down and successfully maintained on a low dose of Mounjaro first as they are not expected to be as effective, especially for those on higher doses of Mounjaro, or even Wegovy injections.

I have moved to Swift Doctor recently for the same reason and have ordered couple of pens. I asked them what I should do if considering a break in the future and they said when I was considering it to email what my plans were and they would discuss with me, and also so they have note of it.

I believe a break of up to 12 months is allowed for Mounjaro, but it is at the discretion of the pharmacy/prescribing pharmacist. Some pharmacies don't allow this, or if they do, they may have different ways of controlling it.

Oushk do a maintenance plan called flex where you can come off and restart whenever, there is no 12 month limit but it costs £15 a month...pharmulous and swift Dr offer a 12 month break max before restarting and it's free.

Presumably if you’re bmi is currently in the normal range and you’re maintaining, by the time you’ve used all your stockpiled pens, you’ll either be off MJ completely or at least have titrated down to 2.5mg?

The dose I will be taking in 9 months is a complete unknown. I am currently taking 10mg a week and went up to 15mg during weight loss. I have 9 months worth of 10mg doses 😳 but would like to get down to a smaller dose.

Am not sure I could ever get down to 2.5mg or come off it completely but I need to stop buying pens, up the exercise, reduce the weekly dose and see what how it goes.

I was in a similar situation last autumn as I stockpiled a few higher dose pens in August before price jump and then planned to use them for smaller doses lasting almost a year. I joined Swift dr, bought one pen from them to be on their books and confirmed in writing that I was planning to stop (as they can’t approve subdosing) and that if I wished to restart at 2.5mg I could do that for up to 12 months as long as bmi above 21. Before I get to 12 months I will restart the clock by ordering pens 2.5/5/7.5/10 for a few months then repeat with another 12 month ordering gap. I think I’ll probably take MJ for life as the benefits are so great and this is my plan at least until the patents end and pricing becomes more competitive to just buy the dose I need rather than subdosing.

OUSHK fucked me over. I didn’t order for one month (as had golden doses) so made me start from 2.5mg when my maintenance dose is 10mg.

Luckily I suspected they’d be cunts so had enough to keep giving myself 10mg. I’ve now had 4 deliveries so I’m back up to the 10mg and I will now leave them.

not having that happen again.

Maybe join one of the maintenance threads as you’ll get some good support from fellow posters figuring out how to reduce their dosage and maintain their current weight?

I’m not there yet but I’m on an older monthly MJ thread where many of the posters are now at their target and figuring out how to titrate down and maintain.

They’ll also have up to date knowledge of current prescribers maintenance rules.

I was with medicine marketplace. I had a six month ordering gap. I then restarted with a bmi of 22. I weighed myself in the evening, so it was slightly higher than this, 22.3 maybe, I can’t remember exactly. My first order from Swift was 5mg (I was surprised they allowed this). I then switched back to medicine marketplace and have since ordered 7.5 and 10 mg. I actually take 5mg. My plan is to build up another stockpile and take another break.

I had a small stockpile and stopped when I realised by the time I used them, they would be close to the use by date, so pointless to keep ordering more because they were all coming from the same batch,(so same use by date) with Medexpress.

A lot of suppliers will let you order as long as you are maintaining BMI over 21 which has helped ease my panic.

I’m in Ireland, so maybe that makes a difference….but I’m wondering why you are all ordering online. Will your GP not prescribe WLI for you?

This has just flagged up , and wondering what you did OP,
im currently jabbing once a fortnight with a 10 pen and have 3 still in fridge ,
im ordering every 2 months at mo but need to stop, could deffo do with not ordering for a while & catching up as car needs some major work £££ …

Mostly in England you can only get an NHS prescription if you’re diabetic & even then it’s not guaranteed

In Ireland, we usually have to pay to see the GP then pay full price for our prescription medication so maybe that’s why it’s easier to get a prescription from our GP service?

Also the HSE aren’t covering the cost of the medication in the vast majority of cases. I get mine on a prescription from my GP but actually order it from the North as it’s about a hundred euro cheaper to buy the same dose over there than buying it from the local pharmacy.

However, I do have a friend who is getting Ozempic (Wegovy) free on the HSE as she’s very overweight, has diabetes and a couple of other co-morbidities and her husband also has long term disabilities. She is really struggling with side effects so I’m hoping they’ll swap her to MJ as it seems to be tolerated better in general.

I had a stockpile, took a photo of all my pens and sent it to Medicine Marketplace and they were happy to let me reorder after I took a break, so might be worth trying with them.