Ozempic and Wegovy have been hailed as secret weapons for weight loss — but some users are reporting seriously stinky side effects.
The drugs, initially designed for people with Type 2 diabetes, are now being prescribed to those looking to lose several pounds, with many hailing them as a “miracle.”
But if the medication sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is — at least for users who are rushing to the restroom and waking up with soiled sheets.
About 30% of Wegovy users say they’ve suffered from diarrhea, while 24% have experienced constipation, according to a new article in Insider.
Some have even joined a “s–t the bed club” online, saying they’ve woken up to find themselves covered in their own poop.
“I quite literally sh–t myself while sleeping,” one person wrote on a Reddit “sleep s–ts” thread. “That’s a first. Been tough few days of diarrhea after my first semaglutide injection.”
Injected once per week into the stomach, thigh or arm, Ozempic and Wegovy are semaglutides, which help the pancreas release the right amount of insulin when blood sugar levels are high.
“Semaglutide is produced while we eat; it tells the brain that we are full,” Dr. Katherine H. Saunders, an NYC physician, told The Post. “It helps people to feel less hungry, to feel full faster, and to stay full longer — but it does so when we are actually less full.”
It makes sense for users to spend less time in the bathroom because they’re likely consuming less food — but some report shocking amounts of time between poops.
“I haven’t pooped in 2 weeks and 2 days,” one user wrote on the same Reddit thread.
Another concurred, claiming they “couldn’t go for the life of me.”
Angela Adams, 47, told Insider that she went more than a week without defecating.
“It got to the point where it was kind of scary,” the nurse declared. “My stomach was hurting, I was in pain.”
As in the case of many other Ozempic and Wegovy users, Adams subsequently turned to laxatives to help relieve herself — and subsequently found she couldn’t control her bowels movements.
“At some point, it’s gonna come out, and you don’t have lot choice as to when it does,” Adams added, admitting that she defecated while sleeping.
On a separate Reddit thread, one bemoaned that they had pooped in public.
“I was out taking a walk today, and felt I needed to go #2. Figured that I would wait until I got home (which was maybe 10 minutes away by foot) and it started becoming more and more urgent,” they wrote. “Suddenly, it just….came. Yep, I crapped myself in public. A liquidy mess too.”
Another wrote: “My advice to all is DO NOT I repeat DO NOT FIRE any WARNING SHOTS!! I head to the bathroom for every little toot…just in case.”
Gastroenterologist Dr. Eric Goldstein told Insider that many may be experiencing diarrhea from trying to overcorrect on constipation.
He described it as a “dam-breaking phenomenon, which is what you’d expect from taking a ton of laxatives,”
However, Goldstein added that some sufferers could be experiencing “overflow” diarrhea, which occurs when a person is constipated by liquid stool “seeps out around the blockage.”
Meanwhile, diarrhea and constipation aren’t the only side effects reported with the use of semaglutide.
One doctor recently coined the term “Ozempic face” to describe the deflation and sagging that often occurs to a user’s visage after they begin taking the drug.
“I see it every day in my office,” the doc, Paul Jarrod Frank, told People. “A 50-year-old patient will come in, and suddenly, she’s super-skinny and needs filler, which she never needed before. I look at her and say, ‘How long have you been on Ozempic?’ And I’m right 100% of the time.