Ozempic babies: are weight loss drugs leading to unintended pregnancies?

Abstract

Posts about unexpected pregnancies while using drugs such as Ozempic for weight loss are trending on social media. Does any scientific evidence back this up? Sangeetha Nadarajah reports Amid the rising popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for weight loss such as semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound), anecdotal reports of unintended pregnancies, even in people using oral birth control or with existing fertility challenges, have begun trending on social media. But despite the media attention and the popularity of the hashtag #ozempicbabies, experts have told The BMJ that these cases may be less common than portrayed. “In my practice and among my colleagues, we rarely encounter this issue,” says Nanette Santoro, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and chair in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Patients’ experiences shared on social media, including Facebook groups such as “I Got Pregnant on Ozempic” and discussion threads on Reddit, reveal a wide range of outcomes. Some women have reported complications while using the drug, including miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, while others describe healthy pregnancies. One woman wrote that she had unknowingly taken Ozempic during early pregnancy and later had a miscarriage, feeling conflicted about whether the medicine had contributed to the outcome. Another reported having had an ectopic pregnancy despite undergoing tubal ligation more than a decade earlier. However, some women unknowingly took GLP-1 receptor agonists during pregnancy and reported healthy births. One woman, writing on the online forum Reddit, discovered that she was 23 weeks pregnant while still taking Ozempic, and her baby showed normal development on ultrasounds. Another woman wrote that she had discontinued Ozempic after learning of her pregnancy and delivered a healthy baby boy, while a different patient switched to insulin but experienced complications due to unknown reasons, leading to a premature …