Baffled by Mounjaro dosage and pricing

[LabOwner95]

I'm considering starting Mounjaro but I wouldn't be eligible on the NHS so would have to pay. I could afford around £150 per month so whilst the starting dose wouldn't be an issue, I'm a bit taken about by the price hikes as the dosage increases! I don't know my weight (I darent stand on the scales) but I am obese so I know that I would need to go above the initial 2.5mg. I would hazard a guess that I need to lose about 4-5 stone to be in a healthy BMI.

So, my questions are please:

1. How much on average are we paying per month for higher doses?
2. Would I need to go up to the 15mg?

Ozempic seems a lot cheaper. Is this a good alternative?

How much on average are we paying per month for higher doses?

I pay around £240 a month for 12.5mg at the moment. There is a price comparison website that shows any new customer discounted prices, or you can check the standard retail prices - https://monj.co.uk/discount-mounjaro-price-list/ Occasionally I use a different provider to take account of a good deal. I have never paid more than £250 a month.

Would I need to go up to the 15mg?

Not necessarily. The dose isn't dependent on your weight, so it's not that people who are more obese need the higher doses. You may find you spend a long time on one of the lower doses, or you may be unlucky and be someone who needs the higher doses to get any effect at all. Impossible to know until you try. I have been on Mounjaro for over 2 years and only just now on 12.5mg.

Ozempic seems a lot cheaper. Is this a good alternative?

Wegovy (the weight loss brand name for semaglutide/Ozempic) is cheaper but less effective. It replicated one hormone (GLP-1) where Mounjaro replicates two (GLP-1 and GIP) which is why it is more effective. But many people get good results on Wegovy injections so if you are starting out it could be worth trying. If Wegovy injections work well for you then it would be within your budget unless you needed the highest dose (7.2mg), which many people don't need to go up to. This is a price comparison site for Wegovy injections:

https://igovy.co.uk/wegovy-price-comparison-uk/

I wouldn't say don't bother with Wegovy. Lots of people get very good results on it.

Some people do well with Wegovy that have not done well with Mounjaro and the same applies in reverse.

Try the cheaper options first. I have a friend who has started wegovey tablets and she says they are good and working.. but if you really wanted mounjaro, and I dont blame you, its amazing..

You can switch round suppliers to get the discounts for a while so can save money there..

But your gonna have to weigh yourself at some.point as they will want to know this, and sometimes see you on the scales etc..

I lost 4 stone on MJ and never went above 5mg.

I’ve also lost 4 stone on mounjaro and have not gone above 7.5mg. I did try 10mg for a month when I thought 7.5mg was less effective but I felt too sick on it so dropped back to 7.5mg. I pay £200 a month for it but if you’re willing to shop around every month, you can get introductory first time offers each time and even on 7.5mg, could probs get it for around £150. I couldn’t be bothered with the monthly faff so I stick with the same supplier now.

Everyone is different in terms of how their body will respond but of the 4 or 5 people I know who’ve been on it for a year or more, no one has gone above 10mg.

I toyed with the idea of switching to Wegovy but have two friends who did it and they felt incredibly nauseous and tired. Some people get on with it just fine but those two stories were enough to put me off.

My advice is to get started! It’s life changing and you won’t look back. I only wish I had started sooner.

I pay £266 per month for my 15mg & this is one of the cheapest providers. It does sting!
Seen as you are on a budget & never tried these things before I would try the Wegovy jabs first.

I lost 3 stone on MJ and never went above 5mg, and actually I was think that was too much. I needed a 3ml dose!

I lost 4 stone and never went above 5mg.

I've lost 9stone and still have a little way to go. I'm currently taking 6.25mg (I click count for partial doses) and have never spent more than £145 for a pen.

I've lost over 7 stone in a year. Started with a BMI over 40 and its currently 26.

I pay £264 every 8 weeks with Juniper. That works out at about £130 per month.

I do this by split-dosing. I pay for a 15mg Mounjaro pen but take only 10mg per week. The pen therefore lasts 8 weeks with the bonus dose (which mine still have but won't soon, so a pen will then last 6 weeks).

I have a £100 off voucher code if you need it.

Regarding Wygovy / Ozempic, I wouldn't be quick dismiss it. I think if I was starting again I'd start with Wygovy, because its so much cheaper. I didn't when I started because the cost difference to Mounjaro wasn't significant like it is now.

WLI themselves are revolutionary and Wygovy is part of that. They way I think about it is this - there is massive research happening into WLI development currently. In 5 or 10 years time, Mounjaro will be the less effective alternative to all the new drugs that roll out as a result of the research. Just because in the future there might be something even better, does not mean that Mounjaro is rubbish, we all can see that its not rubbish from the results. Same for Wygovy now. Just because there are other versions does not mean its ineffective. For some people they may get the same results from both, so go for the cheapest.

I echo what @SilenceInside says. You won't necessarily need to increase beyond lower doses. I lost over 9st and the highest dose I used was 3.75mg. Look at the websites provided for unbiased discounts.

There are many people who lose a lot on lower doses, especially when you use GLP1s as a tool help support you make the needed lifestyle changes and don't expect it to be the whole solution. Make sure you go into it educated on what to expect and what changes you should make to give yourself the best chance of success at lower doses. Of course, conversely there will be people who do still need to increase to the higher doses as they don't respond/continue to respond at lower ones.

The process to be approved is not that tricky - usually photoid, photos/video of clothed body, stepping on scales, share height so BMI can be calculated and a short medical/medication history online form.

If cost is the biggest concern do look at all the options available. It is difficult because each one is a different drug where response may be different and you cannot compare like by like, dose by dose.

You will need to weigh yourself to get a pen maybe even on camera. I buy 15mg from med express which around £300 but take 7.5mg out of it so it lasts longer.

I’ve lost 7 stone with MJ a size 18 to 8 best decision I ever made!

Which provider is that, please

I use this website. It’s updated regularly with the cheapest deals. It usually means

1. remembering to cancel any automatic subscriptions I’ve had to take out and
2. signing up with a new user deal every month. This is a pain as you have to go through the photo/ health assessment thingy most of the time. You also need to remember to photograph the prescribing information on the box of your current pen as new prescribers want this.

it takes longer and you need to remember where you’ve used before. Having said that I’ve saved £20-50 a month so it’s been worth it. Now I’m tapering off back to 2.5 I’m not bothering as for a tenner saving it’s too much grief.

https://monj.co.uk/pillsorted-discount-code/

Well done to all those who’ve lost loads without having to go up to 15mg 🙌

Ozempic is less effective at population but some individuals will find Ozempic more effective than MJ but at the moment there is no way to predict which one is best for individuals.

I used MJ as it was the cheapest when I started. I only went up to 7.5 mg. @CillianMurphyhasbeautifuleyes I think I’m just lucky in that I’m very sensitive to lots of medications and usually only need a low dose.

How much on average are we paying per month for higher doses?

I generally pay about £300 for a 15mg mj pen. more or less. there's usually some kind of discount with e-surgery (my provider) and cashback from topcashback

Would I need to go up to the 15mg?

Possibly. No-one can answer that because it depends on how you respond to the drug. I spent as long as possible on each dose before I felt I had to move up. Im on 15mg now but its only helping to maintain my weight - I have been stuck in a plateau for nearly a year. However I have lost 6 st and couldn't be happier about it. I do split my dose (8mg every 4 days) because I found I couldn't tolerate a full 15mg once a week. But I have also tried lowering the dose and its not sufficent to reduce my food noise.
My son has also been on mj and doesn't need more than 5mg. He has lost about 3st.

Sorry to hijack but confused.

Says on the wegovy 2.4 inj that you can go on it maintenance which works out cheaper. So is that if you've been on it a while and losing weekly? What's the difference for me going from wegovy 2.4 to maintenance wegovy 2.4? Am I being dumb here?

I lost 6.5 stone and only went up to 10mg (and took a while to do that).

As you can tell from the range of responses on here, it's a very individual thing and to a certain extent the luck of the draw how sensitive your body is to MJ and how quickly it acclimatises to each dose.

I lost 6 stone on mounjaro then gained 2. Im on wegovy now and it’s rubbish comparatively. It helps me maintain but im not losing anything at all.

@HangryBrickShark maintenance is when youve been on WLI and have reached your target weight.

If you were to start WLI at BMI below 25, you would struggle to find a provider willing to take a first order at that weight. But if you have been on WLI and gone down to BMI below 25, most providers will let you stay on WLI rather than insisting you stop. That is called a maintenance dose. That's what the provider is referring to.

If affording WL drugs is an issue, think carefully about your long term options before you start using them.

People often stay on the lower doses to save money but some find their weight loss stalls and they end up having to increase the dose anyway.

The vast majority of seriously obese people will not be able to get to their ideal goal weight then stop (taking the medication), without putting the weight back on. So no different to the majority of diet regimes such as WW or Slimming World etc.

We all start off assuming we’ll be able to stay slim once we reach our goal weight by eating less and exercising more but unless we actually address the issues that led to our obesity, research has shown this is highly unlikely. So you might need to stay on some form of WL drugs for the longer term. Some studies suggest a minimum of 2 years post goal weight to embed new habits.

When I started I assumed I’d only need to use MJ for 6 months but it’s been a year and I’m near my goal weight and still slowly losing but I can’t see me stopping taking the drugs for at least another year or more.

I appreciate the thought, but actually it's not really something to be congratulated on - it just happens that my body responds well to the medication and so I haven't needed a higher dose. It doesn't mean that I have somehow done better than someone who did need to go up to 15mg. I'm not trying to criticise you for saying that or anything, just pointing it out as some people might feel like they aren't trying hard enough if they have to continue up the doses and that just isn't the case.

I lost 28kg on 2.5 over 5 months

Fair enough. I get your point.