The onset of menopause coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic for Christy Nguyen. According to her, each of these things led to unwelcome weight gain. The mother of two, who was 56 years old at the time, made the following statement: “I had gained thirty pounds in approximately two years, and so I was sort of desperate to find something” to assist with weight loss. In the hopes of losing weight and being able to quit taking the medications that she had only recently been prescribed for high blood pressure and cholesterol, she had tried both the Weight Watchers program and the ketogenic diet. But nothing appeared to be successful.
That is how Nguyen found herself on a path that lasted for fifteen months, during which she was taking a new class of pharmaceuticals such as Ozempic and Wegovy. These medications, which are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, are experiencing a meteoric rise in popularity; but, due to insurance barriers and shortages, it may be difficult or even impossible to obtain them. Nguyen, along with an increasing number of patients, started taking a prescription medication that had been around for decades in order to lose weight instead.
The physician who treated Nguyen, Dr. Jody Dushay of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, stated that “people come in the door seeking treatment with a GLP-1, and then for whatever reason, they can’t get it or change their mind.” According to Dushay, older weight-loss medications each have their own set of advantages. The cost of these medications can be lower, even if they are paid for out of pocket; they are less likely to be in short supply; they have different adverse effects than Wegovy and other pharmaceuticals of a similar nature; and they are pills rather than injections.
According to data from Epic Research that was supplied exclusively to CNN, prescriptions for older medications in the category of weight-loss pharmaceuticals have also increased simultaneously with the overall prescriptions for weight-loss drugs. However, the increase is on a smaller scale than the prescriptions for drugs such as Wegovy.
