{"id":401547,"date":"2026-02-01T01:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401547\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:28:18","slug":"could-weight-loss-jabs-result-in-you-needing-your-gallbladder-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/401547\/","title":{"rendered":"Could weight loss jabs result in you needing your gallbladder removed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top surgeon links popular weight loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro to an increase in NHS operations to remove gallbladders\"woman<\/p>\n

Jabs have been linked to gallbladder ops by a top surgeon(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Weight loss injections have been linked to an increase in people needing their gallbladder removed.<\/p>\n

A top surgeon said “more and more” of his patients who are having these operations are telling him they have taken the injections. The NHS<\/a> carried out 80,196 gallbladder operations in 2024-25 in England which is a 15% increase on the previous year and the highest for a decade.<\/p>\n

Surgeon Ahmed Ahmed, who is president of the British Obesity and Metabolic Specialist Society, is calling for more research into a potential link between weight loss jabs and gallbladder removals. The consultant surgeon who also carries out gastric band surgeries told the BBC<\/a>: “We don’t know whether it’s the injections that are causing the gallstones, or is it because the injections are causing rapid weight loss, which then in turn causes the gallstones?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Doctor’s ‘appetite reset’ breakfast to stop weight regain after Mounjaro<\/a>\"A<\/p>\n

Gallstones are a known side effect of GLP-1 injections(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly this area needs further research to find out if it’s causative or not.”<\/p>\n

Gallstones – hardened deposits of digestive fluid in the gallbladder – are a known side effect of weight loss jabs. Rapid weight loss, a diet low in fibre and high in fat and obesity can also lead to gallstones.<\/p>\n

James Hewes, a Bristol consultant surgeon who also specialises in obesity and bariatric surgery, told the BBC<\/a>: “Anecdotally, we are seeing more patients presenting with gallstones.<\/p>\n

“Often it is difficult to know if that’s related to the injection, or whether they had them originally but weren’t assessed properly beforehand.”<\/p>\n

Weekly injections such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro slow digestion and reduce appetite by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) which regulates hunger and feelings of fullness. GLP-1 jabs were taken by an estimated 1.6 million Brits last year.<\/p>\n

They commonly cause side effects such as vomiting and require personalised support from specialists so that weight loss is maintained. The NHS prescribes the GLP-1 injections Mounjaro and Wegovy for weight loss but Ozempic only for diabetes.<\/p>\n

\"Wegovy<\/p>\n

Wegovy which is prescribed on the NHS for weight loss<\/p>\n

Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro, said its patient information leaflet warns that gallstones is a common side-effect when the drug is used for weight management and may affect up to one in 10 people.<\/p>\n

It added that gallstones and gallbladder infections are uncommon when the drugs are used to manage type 2 diabetes, and may impact one in 100 people.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk said GLP-1 drugs “are a well-established class of medicines, which have been studied rigorously in clinical trials” and “patient safety is of the utmost importance”.<\/p>\n

The company said adverse reactions observed in clinical trials of semaglutide are included in the drug’s summary of product characteristics (SMPC).<\/p>\n

According to Novo Nordisk, acute gallstone disease was reported in 1.6% of patients, which led to cholecystitis – or inflammation of the gallbladder – in 0.6% of patients.<\/p>\n

The company said: “For this reason, acute gallstone disease is listed as a ‘common’ potential adverse reaction for Wegovy in the product’s UK SMPC and should be considered when patients are being evaluated for this medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top surgeon links popular weight loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro to an increase in NHS operations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,104,56,54,55,14183],"class_list":["post-401547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wegovy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}