{"id":631383,"date":"2026-06-10T15:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631383\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:35:28","slug":"using-glp-1s-made-my-life-better-i-dont-care-if-that-bothers-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631383\/","title":{"rendered":"Using GLP-1s Made My Life Better. I Don’t Care If That Bothers You."},"content":{"rendered":"

I took my first dose of Wegovy on a warm Sunday morning in May of 2024. I swabbed my stomach with an alcohol pad, pushed down on the autoinjector, and waited for the cataclysmic side effects I\u2019d read about on social media: life-shattering nausea, vomiting myself inside out, biblical proportions of diarrhea.\"A<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Megan J. Patton<\/p>\n

Nothing happened. I felt\u2026good? No. I felt great. For the first time in 20 years, I had energy, and most importantly, no pain. I\u2019ve been feeling great, mentally and physically, for the first time since I was a teen, and I feel like I can\u2019t share that joy because apparently Wegovy is a deal breaker. It\u2019s hard to find a space where someone isn\u2019t loudly sharing their non-medical opinion on GLP-1 weight loss while gleefully predicting (and sometimes wishing) long-lasting negative effects on its users. The last time I was this pain-free, I was on fentanyl in a recovery room after major abdominal surgery, although with the way people act about GLP-1s, I feel like they\u2019d prefer I just kept taking the fentanyl.\"Person<\/p>\n

Kateryna Borodina \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

In an April 20th essay for the Cut, writer Sophia Ortega shares that she ghosted a close friend upon discovering the friend was on a GLP-1 medication. Though the friend had hidden the prescription specifically to avoid upsetting her, the article focuses on Ortega unearthing the secret and cutting ties. I\u2019m not the friend in Ortega\u2019s “Losing My Friend Over Wegovy<\/a>” article, but I might as well be.\"Headline<\/p>\n

The Cut<\/p>\n

One thing I learned as a chronically ill woman who grew up as a fat little girl is that my existence constantly triggers other people\u2019s trauma. They don\u2019t want to be fat like me. They don\u2019t want to be sick like me (despite the latter influencing the former). I use two injectables: Enbrel (for my autoimmune diseases) and Wegovy (for my weight and inflammation control). I\u2019ve been on Enbrel for over 20 years, and in those intervening decades I\u2019ve stopped counting the number of people who have to immediately tell me they\u2019re afraid of needles or can\u2019t help but comment on me eating in public. Oh, you\u2019re eating lunch early. Didn\u2019t you just have a snack? I just can\u2019t snack all day. Good for you, Linda. But if I don\u2019t eat this yogurt right now, I\u2019m going to barf undigested pills onto your desk.<\/p>\n

Related: Doctors Say These Are The Side Effects Of GLP-1s That Everyone Should Really, Really, Really Know About<\/a><\/p>\n

Either way, I present my existence as a fat woman, or as an ill woman, or as a fat and ill woman, someone is commenting on my health, my body, and the choices I make to stay alive and healthy, offended that I\u2019m not asking their opinion or holding space for their trauma first.I have MAS<\/a> or multiple autoimmune syndrome meaning I test positive for three or more autoimmune diseases. My lucky combination includes rheumatoid arthritis, polymyositis, and Hashimoto\u2019s. All of these diagnoses include chronic pain, exhaustion, weight gain, and joint damage. All of the medications that treat them also have weight gain or increased appetite as a primary side effect.Just one of these autoimmune diseases can reduce my lifespan by 10 years and have a serious impact on my ability to retain housing, a job, and medical coverage, not to mention my ability to maintain friendships and relationships. Being in constant chronic pain makes me seek out easy dopamine as part of pain management \u2014 for some people in my position that would be drugs or alcohol, for me it was binge eating and high-calorie food. Binge eating would cause me to spiral and then hurt myself working out. I’d crash diet and lose 40 pounds and then gain back 60.\"Person<\/p>\n

Fiordaliso \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 41. I lost two decades to extreme fatigue, brain fog, and most of all, chronic, daily, debilitating pain in my joints and muscles. I do not have wild clubbing stories from my 20s, but I can tell you the best heating pad for what ails you at 50 paces.It\u2019s not a life I would have chosen for myself. It\u2019s not a life I\u2019d choose for anyone. While Ortega described the universal feeling women have about food, hunger, and an obsession to be smaller, be less, in my experience to be fat is to do nothing right ever: lose weight but not like that, and don\u2019t do it around my boyfriend because I can tell you want to steal him, and for god\u2019s sake, take everyone else\u2019s trauma and eating disorder into account before you do lose weight.<\/p>\n

Related: Gynecologists Are Revealing Their Most Mind-Boggling Patient Stories, And That’s It, I’m Never Looking At My Body The Same Way Again<\/a><\/p>\n

The article highlights a bigger problem we have in America: the inability to let go of main character syndrome. Not everything is about you. It does not matter how hard you virtue signal, Batman<\/a> is still fictional.I didn\u2019t tell anyone I was starting a GLP-1 for this exact reason. I didn\u2019t want anyone\u2019s non-medical opinions and unexamined fat-bias to cloud my judgment. Losing weight for me isn\u2019t about having \u201cOzempic Allegations\u201d or getting a revenge body or whatever word salad we use to accuse people of something nefarious even when we\u2019re not sure what we\u2019re accusing them of. I\u2019m chronically ill. I have a revenge body. It\u2019s been trying to get revenge on me for years.\"Person<\/p>\n

Lavju \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

GLP-1s are currently being studied<\/a> as potential treatment options for patients with autoimmune disease. Within two weeks of starting Wegovy, I was able to swim at least three days a week. That was a far cry from barely being able to walk half a mile and then passing out on the couch for hours on end. I picked up hobbies I\u2019d abandoned. We got a puppy. I thought I\u2019d lose weight, not get my life back as I knew it. My hair is growing back thicker after years of medication and disease-induced loss. My dentist was very jazzed at how healthy my gums looked at my last dental appointment, which is uncomfortably telling.Yes, it\u2019s frustrating that celebrities are openly abusing Ozempic<\/a>. It\u2019s hurtful that fat body-positive influencers are promoting GLP1 use<\/a> after making money off the message of acceptance.It\u2019s infuriating that medical fatphobia has fueled the overprescription<\/a> of GLP-1s, causing shortages for those who need them. These are not good enough reasons to demand that consenting, informed adults explain their private medical decisions to make you feel better.<\/p>\n

Related: Doctors Are Sharing The 1 Symptom That Is A Massive Red Flag For Colon Cancer<\/a><\/p>\n

COVID showed us how quickly medical misinformation can spread and how that misinformation can prevent people from getting lifesaving care. Just as I wouldn\u2019t advise someone to forgo treatment for mental illness, addiction, or reproductive health, it\u2019s not my place to discourage anyone from having an informed discussion with a trusted healthcare provider about weight loss.Allow me to answer some of the more burning GLP-1 questions I get…Where\u2019s Your Body Positivity? GLP-1s Trigger My Eating Disorder\"Hands<\/p>\n

Kemalbas \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

GLP-1 Medications Have Horrible Side Effects That Will Make You Sick\"Person<\/p>\n

Ekaterina Demidova \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

You\u2019re Just Being Lazy\"Person<\/p>\n

Francesco Carta Fotografo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll Have to Take a GLP-1 for the Rest of Your Life\"Person<\/p>\n

Iuliia Burmistrova \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Related: I Couldn\u2019t Explain Why I Was Exhausted All The Time. Then I Googled 3 Words And My Stomach Dropped.<\/a><\/p>\n

GLP-1s Have a Black Box Warning\"Person<\/p>\n

Martin-dm \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

GLP-1s Haven\u2019t Been Studied Long Enough, They Only Just Discovered It\"Two<\/p>\n

Chartchai Kanthathan \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

I still have days where I feel like a haunted marionette made out of razor wire and bad thoughts. Now with Wegovy as part of my treatment plan, flares and bad pain days are fewer and much more manageable. My side effects are minimal to none, and yes, I\u2019m losing weight on my terms in a healthy way, monitored by medical professionals I trust.We\u2019re all getting too comfortable expecting the world to shape itself around our traumas, treating the people in our lives like dolls in a dollhouse instead of individuals with separate needs from our own. To the dumped friend on Wegovy, congrats on losing the dead weight. I love that for you.<\/p>\n

Megan J Kaleita is a comedy writer and chronically ill advocate. Her debut essay collection, This Book Is Brought To You By My Student Loans,<\/a> is available at Clash Books.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you have a personal story you\u2019d like to see published on BuzzFeed? Send us a pitch at\u00a0essay-pitch@buzzfeed.com.<\/p>\n

Your daily brain workout: Most People Can’t Finish This Weekend Mega Word Chain \u2014 Can You?<\/a><\/p>\n

Also in Health: 18 Totally Incorrect Health Myths That People Still, For Some Reason, Believe To Be True<\/a><\/p>\n

Also in Health: CrossFitters Are Revealing The Worst Scandals That Rocked Their Gyms, And I’m Wondering Why So Many Of Them Are So Horny<\/a><\/p>\n

Read it on BuzzFeed.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I took my first dose of Wegovy on a warm Sunday morning in May of 2024. I swabbed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[56694,1666,102,6591,213824,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-631383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-autoimmune-diseases","tag-getty-images","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-sophia-ortega","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631383","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=631383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}