More and more women are talking about their “ozempic baby”. We take stock of this phenomenon.
- More and more women are talking about their “ozempic baby”.
- No study has been done on this increasing phenomenon.
- However, specialists call for caution regarding the use of ozempic in the context of conception.
On social networks, testimonies from women talking about the arrival of their “ozempic baby” multiply.
Concretely, it seems that women who have taken ozempic to lose weight become pregnant more easily. But the joy that some people experience when discovering their pregnancy is often accompanied by a certain anxiety in the face of unknowns, because this drug recently put on the market has not yet been the subject of studies in pregnant women.
What are the effects of early exposure to ozempic on the fetus?
“We do not know the effects of early exposure to ozempic on the fetus,” said on CNN Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrinology physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor at Harvard Medical School. “I therefore recommend that women stop taking these medications two months before trying to get pregnant, as indicated in their instructions for use,” he adds.
Ozempic is part of a class of drugs called “GLP-1 receptor agonists”, which act on the regulation of insulin and appetite. This treatment is officially recommended to combat type 2 diabetes, and clinical trials have also shown that it helps patients lose an average of 15-20% of their body weight.
What causes the phenomenon of “ozempic babies”?
“If you start taking these medications and you lose 5, 10, or 15 percent of your body weight, very often you will see an improvement in ovulation in women,” explains Dr. Daniel Drucker, professor and researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital at the University of Toronto.
Still according to this specialist, the phenomenon of “ozempic babies” It could also be because this medication works in part by slowing the speed at which food moves through the stomach. This provides a longer feeling of fullness but can also interfere with the absorption of other medications such as birth control pills.
To conclude, let us remember that studies carried out on animals encourage caution. “If animals receive high doses of ozempic, babies born to mice and rats are very often small and sometimes have malformations,” underlines Daniel Drucker.
Ozempic: what are the recommendations in France?
The ANSM and Health Insurance, for their part, point out that “the use of the drug Ozempic (semaglutide) must be reserved for the treatment of insufficiently controlled type 2 diabetes. Reinforced monitoring has been put in place to ensure that prescriptions respect this framework of use”.
“Reports from the field indicate misuse in non-diabetic people with the aim of weight loss”, deplore the two French institutions.
