Is Ozempic giving a complete recent intending to the term “baby weight”?

The booming drug is driving the burden loss market, but may also be driving a rise in pregnancy rates amongst its users.

While the evidence continues to be largely anecdotal and never yet based on quantitative data, because the rise of GLP-1 weight reduction drugs, a phenomenon often known as “Ozempic babies” has broken out on social media. Essentially, patients and doctors are reporting an increasing variety of surprise pregnancies after using a drug like Ozempic or Mounjaro, the 2 hottest pharmaceuticals within the category.

Experts posit the rationale is twofold: First, doctors speculate that some GLP-1s may very well be impacting the efficacy of hormonal contraception methods. As well, as people drop pounds, they turn out to be more fertile and, it stands to reason, potentially more sexually energetic as well, experts suggest.

“The medications are known to decelerate gastric emptying, so it could alter the absorption of oral contraceptives,” said Dr. Angela Fitch, president of the Obesity Medicine Association and chief medical officer at Knownwell, a primary and obesity care platform. 

Most of the drugs’ labels do include warnings for this interaction. For instance, Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro label states: “Contraception pills by mouth may not work as well while using Mounjaro,” while Ozempic, manufactured by Novo Nordisk, also warns of “decreased efficacy of oral medication and possible pregnancy risks.”

As well as, extra weight often makes it harder to get pregnant, so it stands to reason that as patients drop pounds their fertility increases.

“Being significantly obese hinders ovulation,” said Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, an OB-GYN and clinical professor at Yale University.

“There’s data that individuals with obesity are inclined to have a harder time getting pregnant,” Fitch agreed. “Whenever you drop pounds, nonetheless you lose it, you turn out to be more fertile.”

It seems some patients understand this and a few don’t. Many individuals come to Knownwell hoping to drop pounds to be able to get pregnant, Fitch reported. Nonetheless, there’s an education gap for many who don’t know the implications of dropping pounds on their fertility. For instance, a GLP-1 user may assume she is infertile and due to this fact doesn’t use contraception, resulting in a surprise pregnancy.

“You’re not using contraception because you’re thinking that you’ll be able to’t get pregnant due to your fertility,” said Fitch. “Lots of people use their infertility as a contraception method, they usually don’t get the proper education.” 

That fact is driving more providers to take the time to teach consumers and make specific recommendations.

“As a precaution, what I do in my practice, is for the primary month that a patient is either on semaglutide or Mounjaro, I even have them use a second approach to contraception, mainly the barrier method, which is a condom,” said Dr. Sharon Giese, a board certified plastic surgeon and the creator of the Elective Weight Loss Program.

Other practitioners recommend using a non-hormonal contraception method like an IUD, a advice supported by many pharmaceutical manufacturers. For instance, Mounjaro’s label states users should employ two methods of contraception for the primary 4 weeks of use and for 4 weeks after each dosage increase.

While reduced efficacy of contraception pills may very well be one reason for the Ozempic baby boom, some doctors are pointing to other — more obvious — reasons for the proliferation of surprise Ozempic pregnancies: They’re having more sex.

“I believe that individuals are feeling quite a bit higher about themselves because they’ve lost weight, they usually just are more social and feel sexier. They are only having more activity of their life,” said Giese.

Whatever the rationale, the security implications have patients, providers and the drug manufacturers concerned. “We don’t know what these drugs do to infants and developing fetuses,” Fitch said. 

Furthermore, gathering the info to know the impact of GLP-1s on fetus development is complicated and expected to take a decade or more. For starters, pregnant women or their doctors must self-report cases, but aren’t required to accomplish that. These self-reports, which may be via a hotline listed on the drug’s label, shall be the premise for understanding how these medications may impact pregnancies. For this reason — and the proven fact that human clinical trials are not possible on this case — collecting sufficient data will take an extended time.

“It’s going to take, unfortunately, many, a few years to know what the implications are,” said Dr. Sarah Oreck, a reproductive psychiatry expert and founding father of maternal mental health and care platform Mavida Health. “What becomes difficult about these studies is that they’re confounders because some people who find themselves taking Ozempic can also use substances or can also have depression or can also have multifactorial issues that can be implicated within the outcomes.”

Subsequently, drugs reminiscent of Zepbound, from the makers of Mounjaro, include warnings like, “Available data with tirzepatide in pregnant patients are insufficient to judge for a drug-related risk of major birth defects, miscarriage, or other opposed maternal or fetal outcomes. Based on animal reproduction studies, there could also be risks to the fetus from exposure to tirzepatide while pregnant.”

With GLP-1 usage on the rise — 30 million people in the US may very well be on one by 2030, in accordance with J.P. Morgan Research — experts predict more surprise pregnancies.

“The difficulty is that we’re going to see more of those accidental pregnancies after which what are the results on the babies? We’re not talking about 100 people, but 1000’s, potentially 10,000s, potentially 1,000,000 sooner or later,” said Fitch, adding that some early data does point to negative findings like “being small for gestational age.”

Because of the unknown, it is suggested that those that do turn out to be pregnant discontinue the medication immediately. As well as, those trying to get pregnant should stop using the medication six weeks before actively trying.

“Now that this is going on, there’ll likely be quite a bit more education and warnings around it,” Oreck said.

That being said, there’s a brilliant side.

“It might be something that’s used before people must spend a whole lot and 1000’s of dollars on assisted reproductive technologies, on IVF,” Oreck said, adding that it’s also a helpful modality to lose stubborn weight postpartum. “To me, it just feels more like that is finally one other tool in our toolbox.”