I Took Ozempic for Ten Months to Lose Weight

I learned at a very young age that my body is hormonally imbalanced, and that having kids would either not be possible or extremely difficult for me.

In early 2020 I started seeing an OBGYN to see what my options were. She suggested I start hormone replacement therapy in an attempt to promote ovulation and retrieve some eggs to freeze for the future.

As I began the therapy, I started to gain weight pretty rapidly. Eventually, we found that my body was not responding to the treatment in the way we expected and I had gained around 40 lbs.

During one appointment with my doctor, I got on the scales and broke down. It was the most I'd ever weighed in my life. I told her I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin and couldn't keep going.

She agreed that I should stop the hormone therapy and set me up with an endocrinologist who specializes in weight management. She ran a handful of tests and explained to me that the treatment had sent my body into a state of fight or flight mode.

Because of this, my body was storing every ounce of fat because it thought it needed to safeguard that fat for the future. There was nothing telling my body that it was going to be okay.

My body was also sent into a state of insulin resistance, so in October 2020, my doctor suggested I try Ozempic, a diabetes medication that would help level out my body and stop it from storing fat.

At that time, I had heard nothing about the drug. There were no headlines or social media videos about it—it was still such a new thing. One of my sisters works in healthcare, and the other in health sciences, so I always turn to them in situations like this.

They said it sounded like a good idea, and that everything the endocrinologist said made sense. I was nervous about giving myself a shot every week, but I just wanted to feel good in my body again, so I decided to go for it.

When I first started taking it I definitely had some irregular bowel movements, but in general, I didn't have very many side effects.

Over time, I lost the weight. I have always been someone who works out regularly and eats very healthily, so I wasn't surprised that it fell off quickly.

Before and throughout this entire process I maintained a healthy lifestyle, but I just found that all of a sudden my clothes were fitting better, and I was beginning to recognize myself in the mirror again. I started to feel good and like I could function better.

Because the medication suppressed my appetite, I was aware that I would need to keep eating healthy food consistently, because I wanted to keep my metabolism going.

I believe that if you choose to take that medication, there's a lot of mindset work to be done to make sure that you are in a healthy place, and you're doing so to better your health and feel more comfortable in your body.

Because if you're just doing so to lose weight, but you're not also working on your mindset and your belief system, then I don't think that you're going to all of a sudden become a happier person. There's so much that goes into it.

It wasn't until ten months after starting Ozempic that I started to get in my own head about it. At that point, I don't think I had necessarily lost all of the weight, but I had stopped paying attention to what the scales said and was just going off of how I felt.

I reached the point where I was feeling great, and the fact that I had to give myself a shot every week was really freaking me out. I didn't have diabetes, so I no longer felt I had reason to be taking it.

My endocrinologist also told me that if I did want to have kids in the future, I would need to come off it, so in August 2021, I stopped taking it.

When I came off the medication I was nervous about gaining weight back immediately, but I believe that because I had maintained healthy eating habits throughout, nothing changed.

Fortunately, I haven't noticed any negative long-term side effects; I truly believe that because of the state my body was in, taking it just brought me back to balance.

I have seen a lot of content on TikTok talking about side effects like "Ozempic face"—aging of the skin because of the drug—but I haven't noticed anything like that personally.

I was born in the middle of the 1990s, during the "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels era" and I do feel a lot of that still trickles into today, and is a major motivation behind why some people are taking Ozempic.

But I believe that if your only aim is to look a certain way, not because you want to feel better or because you want to become healthier and regulate your body, then you may not have as smooth a time as I did.

I don't feel I can give a blanket yes or no as to whether other people should take Ozempic, because there are a lot of caveats with it. When I took it I was in constant communication with my doctor and was maintaining healthy habits.

I believe you have to check your mindset, and your habits, before taking this drug. I don't think people should take this medication lightly.

I feel that if you do have serious health concerns, and it is suggested and approved by your doctor because of your personal scenario, then that's something for you to decide on your own.

My biggest piece of advice is to stay in close contact with your doctor, make sure you always continue to support your health and body, and listen to what it needs to stay healthy.

Jen Alico is a meditation coach and health and a wellness content creator. You can follow her on Instagram @zenjen.meditation.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

As told to Newsweek's My Turn associate editor, Monica Greep.

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