Doctor issues ‘Ozempic baby’ warning to anyone taking weight loss drug

An NHS doctor has delivered his ‘hot take’ on why he believes weight-loss drugs are contributing to the rise of ‘Ozempic babies’.

Ozempic was initially designed for people with type 2 diabetes to regulate their blood sugar by helping the pancreas make more insulin. And while the GLP-1 hasn’t been approved for weight loss in the UK, thousands of obese people have instead turned to the likes of the NICE-approved Wegovy and Mounjaro to help them feel better in their skin.

But as well as suppressing your appetite and slowing down digestion, these weight-management jabs could interfere with contraception, according to The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Experts have claimed that people on the pill may find that their contraception isn’t being absorbed effectively if they’re also injecting with weight-loss drugs.

MHRA also advised women on these drugs to also use other forms of contraception, like condoms, especially during the first four weeks of treatment.

As well as possibly decreasing contraception absorption rates, these so-called ‘skinny jabs’ could potentially increase fertility rates, according to an expert.

Dr Karan Rajan, an NHS surgeon and author, has since had his say on the so-called ‘Ozempic baby boom’.

“Ozempic babies, Wegovy babies - reports of increased fertility in women who are taking some of these weight loss injections,” he began.

Dr Rajan questioned if the ‘reduced absorption of some contraceptive medication’ was the reason behind the ‘Ozempic baby’ boom, or perhaps ‘improved insulin allowing for more fertility’.

“Also, some of those indirect factors include losing weight, increased confidence, libido, desire to have more sex with a partner,” he explained in an Instagram video. “My hot take is that independent of weight loss, we are going to be seeing over the next few years the increasing microdose or low-dose use of weight loss injections like GLP-1, GIP-agonists.”

According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), losing weight can positively improve sexual function, while Lloyds Online Doctor stated that shedding pounds can help increase your libido.

Brown University also reported that for many, weight plays a major role in their self-esteem and body image, and that changing their lifestyle can massively boost morale.

“Think about the role of weight loss injections in the paradigm of improving fertility, independent of weight loss.”

But Dr Rajan isn't the only person to take note of this, as Dr Daniel Drucker, a professor and researcher at the University of Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital and a pioneer of research into GLP-1, told CNN: “If you start on these medicines and then you lose 5, 10, 15 percent of your body weight, very often, you will have an improvement in ovulation.”

Moreover, doctors are unsure whether weight-loss drugs have an impact on these unborn ‘Ozempic babies’ - defined by the Cleveland Clinic as a foetus conceived whilst taking the weight-loss medication.

“We don’t know the effect of early exposure … on the fetus,” said Dr. Jody Dushar, a physician focused on endocrinology and metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk said that Semaglutide injections, including Ozempic and Wegovy, should be ‘discontinued in women at least 2 months before a planned pregnancy’.

This is apparently ‘due to the long washout period for semaglutide’.

“Semaglutide should not be used during pregnancy. Women of childbearing potential are recommended to use contraception when treated with semaglutide,” they continued.

“In other pharmacology trials, semaglutide did not affect the absorption of oral medications (including the oral contraceptive medication ethinylestradiol and levonorgestrel) to any clinically relevant degree.

“Therefore, semaglutide is not anticipated to decrease the effect of oral contraceptives. Nonetheless, caution should be exercised when oral medications are concomitantly administered with semaglutide.”