People can lose weight in all sorts of ways, from surgery to strict diet and exercise routines (though it’s true that weight loss through semaglutide use is certainly more rapid than via lifestyle interventions).
Dr Martin Whyte is an associate professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey in the UK. “Obesity has an adverse top-down effect on so many aspects of human health, from your brain, to deep-vein thrombosis in your legs,” he says. “If a person can lose weight, there are likely to be a huge amount of benefits. Lowering the risk of diabetes and heart disease is only the start.”
The question now for scientists is whether the action of GLP-1 itself increases fertility, separately from the more global weight loss issue. This would then open up a potential medical solution for women who, to quote Moffett, are having fertility issues but “are not fat enough” for bariatric surgery.
Ozempic injection pens move along a conveyor at a production facility.Credit: Bloomberg
More exciting still, with a modified dose, there’s a possibility that the GLP-1 drugs could potentially help infertile women who present with a “normal” weight. (It’s worth noticing that underweight women also have problems conceiving.)
“This is a more tricky one to unpick, but it’s certainly true that GLP-1 has a hand in the stimulation of the hormones FSH and LH, which travel in the blood and lead to the development of the egg,” says Whyte. Moffett goes further: “There are GLP-1 receptors all over the body, from the kidney, to the brain, to the pituitary gland and the gut,” she says. “Its targets are global, and it could certainly improve a woman’s chances of getting pregnant.”
She points out, though, that “there is too little safety data for comfort” and that the drug companies are advising women to come off semaglutide at least 90 days before seeking to conceive, though Moffett adds there is really no need to panic if you find yourself pregnant while taking GLP-1 drugs, as it’s a natural compound.
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There is another twist in the tale: some of the new mothers in the Ozempic baby boom have been taken by surprise as they weren’t looking to add to their families or to start them in the first place. “There is some evidence that Mounjaro, one of the newer drugs, has an interaction with the pill and can potentially make it less effective,” says Dr Moffett.
The evidence seems to be mounting that semaglutide can help with both weight loss and female fertility. But the story doesn’t only go one way. “All the gaze has been on women, but actually, what’s more interesting is the effect of the GLP-1 drugs on the male reproductive system,” says Dr Whyte. “Obesity impairs sperm production. Some of today’s baby boom may well be down to the impact of the male users.” Lest we forget, it takes two to make a baby.
