{"id":77300,"date":"2025-08-18T11:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77300\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:27:09","slug":"as-glp-1s-go-mainstream-jealousy-and-judgment-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/77300\/","title":{"rendered":"As GLP-1s go mainstream, jealousy and judgment follow"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been two and a half years since host Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s famous Oscars joke<\/a>: \u201cEverybody looks so great,\u201d he said from the stage. \u201cWhen I look around this room, I can\u2019t help but wonder \u2014 is Ozempic right for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Some of the people who most need the drugs for health reasons still can\u2019t get them because of affordability issues, a situation that is creating disparities along racial and socioeconomic lines, as the Globe <\/a>and Stat<\/a> have reported.<\/p>\n

But in whiter and wealthier circles, the drugs have filtered down to seemingly everyone: neighbors, colleagues, the cousin who\u2019s always been competitive with you. <\/p>\n

Ozempic Face<\/a> is no longer just for the very rich.<\/p>\n

Almost 12 percent of Americans have used GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, and an additional 14 percent say they\u2019re interested, according to a recent Rand survey<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As they become an ever-larger presence in a twisted society that still largely equates thinness with virtue and beauty, the drugs are no longer just reshaping bodies. They\u2019re changing relationships. Jealousy, secrecy, and lies are rippling through friendships, marriages, and even doctors\u2019 appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I get my GLP1 through an online clinic, will they tell my primary care doctor?\u201d asked a Redditor<\/a> whose doctor had denied her request for a prescription because she had an eating disorder as a teen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI KNOW this is not ideal,\u201d the user acknowledged, \u201cbut I also take \u2026 [Adderall] and I don\u2019t want him \u2026 to stop prescribing my meds\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

In South Boston, Mary, 35, who asked her last name not be used, is already stressing about her doctor\u2019s appointment. It\u2019s in December.<\/p>\n

As a child she was sent to \u201cfat camp,\u201d and has grown into a binge eater who thinks about food constantly. But because she\u2019s overweight but not obese, she fears her doctor doesn\u2019t understand the depth of her struggle.<\/p>\n

This summer, almost certain the doctor wouldn\u2019t write her a prescription, she took matters into her own hands and got an online prescription for Zepbound<\/a> \u2014 at $500 a month, plus an initial $120 fee.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s lost about 25 pounds, but she\u2019s worried about telling her doctor. \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie to her,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I\u2019ve got myself into a pickle.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, the drugs are putting many people in a no-win situation. Some people are being judged for taking them. Others for not taking them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have this idea that being fat makes you horrible, and losing the fat any way other than \u2018their\u2019 way also makes you horrible,\u201d said Jacqui Conforti, 47, a manager in a high-tech company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an addiction, pure and simple, and if someone offered drug addicts or alcoholics a pill to cure their addiction, the creators would receive a Nobel prize. But because this is helping fat people, it is demonized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jen Gaouette, 35, who said she\u2019s about 100 pounds overweight, faces the opposite problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy aren\u2019t you on Ozempic?\u201d strangers demand.<\/p>\n

Lingering problems from a car accident make her particularly concerned about side effects,<\/a> and so while she\u2019d like an easy solution, she\u2019s not sure GLP-1s are it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like people implying that I need to be fixed,\u201d she said, \u201cor assuming that I\u2019m not already working on what they see as a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA dosage of Wegovy.Amanda Andrade-Rhoades\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

The new drugs are triggering emotions that many wish they didn\u2019t have. In a Boston suburb, a wife who is struggling to lose weight for lack of a GLP-1 prescription finds herself being happy for \u2014 but also sort of resenting \u2014 her husband, who\u2019s dropping pounds easily on a weight-loss drug. <\/p>\n

\u201cI get up early to exercise while he\u2019s in bed or watching the news,\u201d she said. \u201cIt gets frustrating. I\u2019m cutting my portions in half, and he wants to go out for ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amanda Torrey, 48, a nanny and a romance writer <\/a>from Blackstone, is fighting an inner battle.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d like to lose 25 to 50 pounds, but instead has been gaining weight. Recently, she saw one of her many friends who is taking a GLP-1. The friend was 100 pounds thinner than she\u2019d been, and looked \u201cadorable,\u201d Torrey said. \u201cAnd she was feeling great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torrey couldn\u2019t get the transformation out of her mind. \u201cMaybe I should just do it,\u201d she told her partner. He\u2019d like to lose weight, too, but they reminded each other about the side effects and how they don\u2019t want to start a drug they\u2019d be on for life, or put themselves at the \u201cwhim\u201d of an insurance company.<\/p>\n

So that was that. Or was it? <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone else looks so good,\u201d she said wistfully.<\/p>\n

Beth Teitell can be reached at beth.teitell@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @bethteitell<\/a>.<\/p>\n