Wegovy 1: Will This Work?
This is the first in a continuing series about my experience with the weight-loss drug Wegovy, which is similar to Ozempic.
If you haven’t heard of Ozempic by now, you obviously have more of a life than I do. It’s the face — quite literally if you’ve been following the trend — of a new batch of FDA-approved weight loss drugs that are all the rage in the celeb-sphere, most notably the Kardashians.
When the topic first showed up in my feed, I dismissed it as just another diet trend (Keto, anyone? Whole 30 then?) that would soon be out of the headlines, replaced by another, shinier option that would finally — finally— allow us to have our cake, eat it too, and still look amazing from behind.
That, however, is not the real reason that I scrolled past the Ozempic articles. I am a binge-eater and I have learned through a lifetime of failed attempts that no frickin’ pill is going to stop me from going to Ralph’s late at night for ice cream and donuts while wearing pajama bottoms and a ski vest. All my life I’d wished for a pill like that but hard experience had dashed those hopes long ago.
For those not familiar with binge-eating disorder (BED), it’s an overpowering, out-of-control compulsion to eat large amounts of food in a short period of time, usually alone and in one sitting, and there’s no cure for it. We don’t vomit after a binge — that’s a whole other disorder. No, we keep the food down in our very swollen stomachs and damaged digestive systems, gain tons of weight, and live our lives in elastic pants and baggy T-shirts. I’ve had the condition all my life and I truly would not wish it on anyone. No pill was going to be able to help me because I’d tried them all.
And then Amy called.
Amy is friend who also has BED and she and I have watched each other struggle with both weight gain and hopelessness for decades. The last couple of times I’d seen Amy, however, she’d lost a noticeable amount of weight and demonstrated an emotional stability and glow I’d never seen before.
“I’m taking Wegovy,” she said.
“Wha-wha?” I responded.
Wegovy, she explained, is in the same drug category as Ozempic, only it’s more concentrated and isn’t considered a “controlled substance” like Ozempic. You inject it once a week and it provides relief in the form of extended fullness and reduced cravings. Amy had been on Wegovy a few months and said it was had reduced her cravings to a manageable level.
“It’s not a miracle drug,” she explained. “But it’s really reduced my food cravings. You can definitely still binge on it but what’s crazy is that I don’t want to.”
Although that sounded great and I offered her support, inside I knew this experiment would end in failure, just like all the others.
And then I went to my doctor.
Now, Dr. X is the smartest and most cynical guy I know. He’s a general practitioner who keeps up on all the research, explains everything in detail, and generally has a low opinion of not just medications but the entire medical industry as a whole. So imagine my shock when I learned Dr. X was a fan of Wegovy.
“I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on these drugs and it’s just not happening,” he told me. Dr. X said the drugs were fine for long-term use and were really helping people with issues of overeating and obesity.
Once I learned my insurance would cover Wegovy— $1,400 a month out of pocket, really? — I agreed to take it.
I feel I’m going on the Wegovy Journey with managed expectations. I don’t believe there is anything that will cure my BED but if there’s a pill — or in this case an injectable — that will help me? Well, I’d be a fool not to give it it a try. I’ll document my story here to offer help and experience and I guess we’ll just see what happens, huh?
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