The months before and after pregnancy can be extremely challenging for women, both mentally and physically, and some turn to GLP-1 medications to cope with weight gain. Here, Kirsty Blake Knox speaks to Irish mothers about their experiences on the drugs and the stigma surrounding them Ciara*, from Dublin, became a first-time mother at the age of 39. She knew she wanted a
Last month, the World Health Organization updated its guidelines for GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Among the guidelines were several conditional recommendations, as well as a perspective that took the long view, temporally speaking. "Our new guidance recognizes that obesity is a chronic disease that can be treated with comprehensive and lifelong care," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization's Director-General, said in a statement.That "lifelong" isn't said lightly.
Medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have become almost impossible to avoid - in ads, on TikTok, in celebrity interviews, and even in group chats. For many people, GLP-1s have been genuinely life-changing, helping with blood sugar control, appetite regulation, and weight loss. But while the benefits get talked about a lot, the side effects? Not so much. Some are physical. Some are emotional. Some are things you didn't expect until you were already on them.
I'm glad many of you out there are feelin' good and lookin' svelte, but if we're friends going out to dinner together and you're taking Ozempic or any other GLP-1s, I feel like you need to disclose this when we're deciding where to go since you won't be eating or drinking very much. Like, let's skip the tasting menu or the dim sum feast and get sushi instead.
When someone loses weight, it often becomes a public event. People notice, comment, and-almost reflexively-ask how. The question implies that whatever method they used is worth knowing, replicating, or admiring. It positions weight loss as an achievement, a moral victory, a signal of discipline or virtue. But what if it isn't? What if their weight loss came from illness, grief, stress, or depression? What if it involved a medication that finally brought balance to their body chemistry-or, conversely, an eating disorder or unhealthy behaviors?
But that same morning, a $900 charge for her GLP-1 prescription landed on her credit card. Whatever she was saving at the supermarket felt dwarfed by the cost of her medication. Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound are being hailed as medical breakthroughs. They're not just changing waistlines-they're changing household budgets. And as these shifts ripple through everyday spending, the financial industry has an important role to play in helping people rethink, rebalance, and plan for this new reality.
When it comes to protein, packaged food and beverage brands have gotten increasingly creative about ways to pack more of the nutrient into their products. Now, a shift is underway. "Fiber will be the next protein," PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said during an earnings call Thursday. "Consumers are starting to understand that fiber is a benefit that they need," he added. "It's actually a deficiency in US consumers' diet."
My body was completely stuck. I really let myself indulge when I was pregnant. So, when I had lost that baby at 20 weeks, I had probably gained an extra 40 pounds that I wasn't comfortable with. Seeing her 'pregnant belly with no baby in it' caused her to go into a 'deep depression.' Teigen said she used Ozempic for a year without results, until 'all of a sudden' she was 'finally able to lose the weight.'
The future of medicine will be personalized, taking patients' specific medical history into account when prescribing care. Hand-tailored treatment plans are especially crucial for issues as nuanced as obesity.
