Are ‘Ozempic babies’ on the rise? What you need to know about the growing event – National | Globalnews.ca

The term “Ozempic babies” continues to take the social media by storm as a growing number of women share their stories of getting pregnant after using the popular weight loss drug. of the body.

Although there is no scientific research but specifically focused on the phenomenon of “Ozempic babies”, experts say that the increasing evidence of abnormality “is not surprising.”

Last year, Darine El-Chaar, an obstetrics and gynecology doctor at the Ottawa Hospital, said she encountered at least five such cases either in her clinical practice or through other colleagues.

“This is one of the things we expect to see,” El-Chaar said in an interview with Global News.

“People who thought they couldn’t conceive or didn’t have periods will experience a surprise pregnancy with this medicine.”

But what is behind this link? And are there any risks of weight loss drugs during pregnancy?

Here’s what we know.

Many women who are obese or have polycystic ovary syndrome will have irregular periods and ovulation, making it difficult for them to get pregnant, said Daniel Drucker, a scientist senior at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Center at Sinai Health, Toronto.

So, to increase their chances of conceiving, one of the recommendations is to lose weight, Drucker said.

“It is clear that these drugs help women lose weight, and weight loss itself will increase ovulation and increase the chance of a successful birth event,” he said in an interview with Global News.

People who are obese often take “highly effective” weight-loss medications, so it’s “not surprising” that their ovulation will be reversed, said Naila Ramji, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Fredericton. NB, and assistant professor. at Dalhousie University.

In addition, social factors, such as women becoming more comfortable with their body image and sexual relationships since losing weight, also need to be looked at carefully, El-Chaar said.

Another possible explanation for the increase in fertility from weight loss drugs is the way that GLP-1 agonists, a group of drugs that include Ozempic, Wegovy and others, practical.

Ramji said GLP-1 can delay gastric emptying and that can affect the absorption of other drugs that enter the stomach, including birth control pills.

Ozempic is a vaccine so it doesn’t enter the GI tract, but it can slow it down, Ramji explained.

The warning label for the weight loss and diabetes drug tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro, states that birth control pills may not work as well while you are using this drug.

“If you are taking oral contraceptive pills, your healthcare provider may recommend another form of birth control for 4 weeks after you start Mounjaro and 4 weeks after after each increase in your dose of Mounjaro,” the drug label from May 2022 says.

Because of the potential impact on such contraceptives, Ramji said it’s important to consider taking them with other forms of oral contraceptives, such as IUDs, the Depo-Provera injection, birth control patch. , an estrogen ring, and implants, called Nexplanon.

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Experts advise pregnant women not to take any weight loss pills because there is little research on how this can affect pregnant women. So far, no controlled human trials have been done to look at the risks.

The recommendation is to stop taking such drugs at least two months before becoming pregnant, Ramji and Drucker said.

Although there are animal studies that suggest that weight loss drugs may cause birth defects and increase the risk of miscarriage and growth restriction, there is insufficient safety data in humans. , said Ramji.

“In general, we don’t recommend weight loss medications for women trying to get pregnant, and we don’t recommend trying to lose weight when you’re pregnant,” she said.

“There can be pregnancy complications associated with this drug and the reason we say we wait two months before is because we don’t know how long it will stay in the human system.”

Ozempic’s website says it is not known whether the drug will pass into the unborn baby or pass into breast milk.

Another concern during pregnancy is the lack of appetite for weight-loss drugs, which may harm the baby, Drucker said.

“Pregnancy is a time when we want to have enough nutrition for the growing baby, so we don’t want to have a situation where a woman can face not only nausea and vomiting because it and pregnant, but even now. lack of appetite because they are using these weight loss drugs,” he said.

Global News reached out to Novo Nordisk, makers of Ozempic and Wegovy, about reports of unintended pregnancy in patients using these weight loss drugs.

In a statement, they said “pregnancy or intention to become pregnant were exclusion criteria” from the company’s trials with semaglutide for obesity and type 2 diabetes. As a result, “there is limited data from clinical trials with the use of semaglutide in pregnant women.”

–via file from Global News’ Sean Previl