Ozempic and Mounjaro, two popular diabetes management and weight loss drugs in the US, are making women pregnant despite their use of birth control. Moreover, even some women who’ve been infertile for years are becoming pregnant after using these drugs. So what’s going on?
TikTok, Facebook, X, and Instagram are flooded with posts from female Ozempic and Mounjaro users reporting pregnancies. However, these cases are not just limited to social media. Many doctors have also confirmed coming across such pregnancies.
“This phenomenon is real. We have seen cases of failure of oral contraception as well as boosted fertility with drugs like GLP-1 agonists,” Dr. Neha Lalani, an endocrinologist currently practicing in Austin, Texas, told Healthline.
Ozempic works like an anti-birth control pill
Mounjaro and Ozempic are GLP-1 agonists, medicines that treat type-2 diabetes by mimicking the action of the GLP (glucagon-like peptide) hormone. This hormone controls insulin and glucagon secretion, playing an important role in regulating blood sugar and glucose levels in the body. Essentially, GLP-1 reduces your appetite.
While both drugs are primarily used for treating type-2 diabetes, they are also sold under the brand names of Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively, for weight loss. During clinical trials, these drugs reduced some participants’s weight by up to 20 percent.
What’s surprising is that these drugs also come with a warning mentioning that birth-control pills may not work while patients are on them. This is because they change the way both food and medicines are absorbed in the body.
“This causes oral birth control pills to not be absorbed consistently, especially each time the dose of GLP-1/ GIP+ GLP-1 agonists is stepped up. This is resulting in failure of oral birth control pills,” Lalani said.
This is also why for people who don’t want babies but are on Ozempic or Mounjaro, it is recommended to use alternative birth control methods other than oral pills.
However, this isn’t the only reason more and more women are becoming pregnant after taking these medicines.
The effect of weight loss drugs on women’s reproductive health
Experts suggest that GLP-1 agonists also have a positive effect on ovulation, the stage of women’s menstrual cycle during which their ovaries release eggs.
“If you start on these medicines and then you lose 5, 10, 15% of your body weight, very often, you will have an improvement in ovulation,” Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and researcher who played a major role in the discovery of GLP-1, told CNN.
In fact, the medicines have proved to be so good at improving ovulation that many women who couldn’t become pregnant due to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are now able to conceive.
PCOS is a medical condition that causes infertility in females and affects nearly 12 percent of all women of childbearing age in the US.
“Struggled with infertility for 8 years. Started Mounjaro, and 10 months later pregnant with our miracle baby,” a user posted on TikTok
Explaining the science behind such miracles, Dr. Jamie Grifo, an expert in endocrinology and infertility at NYU Langone Health Center, said:
“With the weight loss from these drugs, many women who are anovulatory start to have regular ovulation and menses, which takes them from a low fertility situation to a more normal fertile state.”
Do this if you’re also expecting an Ozempic baby
Ozempic babies have brought happiness in the lives of many infertile women who had lost hope of becoming pregnant. However, on the other hand, many other people who were not ready to become parents, now have babies because they used these weight loss drugs and were not aware of the risks.
“This pregnancy issue is a real issue. There’s no question about it. The drug manufacturers and most certainly prescribing health care providers should highlight this issue,” Drucker told Vox.
What’s more concerning about these weight-loss medicines is that even experts don’t know how exactly Ozempic and Mounjaro affect the health of pregnant women. Whether these medicines could harm unborn babies or their mothers in some way is still unknown. These drugs are still relatively new on the market.
“It is not known if MOUNJARO will harm your unborn baby. Tell your healthcare provider if you become pregnant while using MOUNJARO, ” according to the Mounjaro medication guide.
When it comes to Ozempic, some animal studies suggest that there is a chance Wegovy could harm the fetus. While highlighting the results of such studies, the Wegovy medication guide notes:
“Based on animal reproduction studies, there may be potential risks to the fetus from exposure to semaglutide (a chemical found in both Ozempic and Wegovy) during pregnancy. Weight loss offers no benefit to a pregnant patient and may cause fetal harm. When a pregnancy is recognized, advise the pregnant patient of the risk to a fetus, and discontinue WEGOVY®.”
The Wegovy medication guide recommends that women should stop taking the weight loss drug at least two months before they are planning to get pregnant. This will allow the medicine to leave their system.
Many healthcare experts also agree that women who are already pregnant or are trying to conceive should stop taking these weight-loss medicines. Also, in case, they become pregnant while on Ozempic or Mounjaro, they should inform their doctor immediately.
“There are serious risks to pregnancy when on these drugs, and women need to be monitored very closely, especially if they are trying to get pregnant,” Grifo said.
