Women are advised to combine effective contraception with ‘skinny jabs’ | Medical research

Claims that “skinny jabs” are fueling an unexpected baby boom have led experts to warn women to pair their use with effective contraception.

Drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic, both of which contain semaglutide, have become extremely popular, not least because they can help people lose more than 10% of their body weight.

The drugs work by mimicking a hormone in the body called GLP-1 that stimulates an increase in insulin production, slows the rate at which food is digested in the stomach and reduces appetite.

But as their use has boomed, so have reports of women becoming pregnant while using such drugs – known as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

The Facebook group “I got pregnant on Ozempica” has more than 750 members, while the threads on the social network Reddit are full of anecdotes of such experiences.

Although studies confirming the link are lacking, experts say the link is likely.

“Obese women often have irregular periods or none at all because they don’t ovulate. After they lose some weight, ovulation becomes more regular and their fertility improves,” said Dr. Karin Hammarberg of Monash University in Australia.

Research is underway to see if semaglutide can help induce ovulation in obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a condition that can cause irregular periods, weight gain and infertility, among other symptoms.

However, concerns have been raised about the safety of pregnant women using GLP-1 receptor agonists.

A spokesman for Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, said: “Pregnancy or intention to become pregnant were exclusion criteria in our trials with semaglutide in both obesity and type 2 diabetes. Therefore, there is limited clinical trial data on the use of semaglutide in pregnant women. “

Although human evidence is lacking, animal studies have suggested that semaglutide may cause fetal abnormalities.

According to Novo Nordisk, when semaglutide was given to pregnant rats, the unborn offspring showed both structural abnormalities and growth changes.

The preclinical safety information for Wegovy adds: “In developmental toxicity studies in rabbits, i cynomolgus monkeys, increased pregnancy loss and a slightly increased incidence of fetal abnormalities were observed at clinically relevant exposures.”

Although the company is now conducting trials to investigate whether such drugs are safe for pregnant women, it currently advises that semaglutide should not be used during pregnancy as it is not known whether it can affect an unborn baby.

“Therefore, the use of contraception is recommended during the administration of this medicine,” states the patient instructions for Wegovy. “If you want to get pregnant, you should stop using this medicine at least two months before. If you become pregnant or become pregnant, think you may be pregnant or are planning to become pregnant while using this medicine, contact your doctor immediately as treatment will have to be stopped.”

But some women have reported getting pregnant when they used GLP-1 receptor agonists despite using hormonal birth control, leading to speculation that the drugs could affect such birth control methods.

Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, co-director of the Wellcome-MRC Institute for Metabolic Science, said the question of whether GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs could affect the effectiveness of oral contraceptives was still largely unanswered.

“People treated with these drugs can develop gastrointestinal side effects including diarrhoea, so it is not unlikely that some women may find that their oral contraceptive pill, at least occasionally, is not absorbed as reliably as it used to be,” he said.

“A pragmatic response to this situation might be to suggest that for women on the pill who really want to avoid pregnancy, while having active weight loss on GLP-1 [receptor agonists]they may consider themselves to be at higher risk of pregnancy and use additional methods, such as barrier contraception, until their weight stabilizes, after which it seems likely that contraceptive effectiveness will return to normal.”

Hammarberg agreed. “The stories of women who got pregnant on semaglutide while on the pill are anecdotal stories and we have to keep in mind that this also happens among women who are not taking semaglutide. Some have speculated that semaglutide might alter the absorption of the pill, but as far as I know, there is no evidence that this is the case,” she said.

“To make doubly sure that an unplanned pregnancy does not occur, it would be wise for women taking Ozempic and similar drugs to use condoms, and an IUD would also be a very safe option.”