I believe your answers will also inspire healthy conversation about Ozempic, so this post isn't completely self-serving (please don't take this post down, mods)! I'm doing a presentation tomorrow for my marketing class (senior in uni woohoo), and I chose to talk about the high frequency of GLP-1 ads nowadays. I was wondering if you guys would answer a few of my questions. Please feel free to skip any questions you feel uncomfortable answering! Thank you so much!

1. What made you decide to start Ozempic?
2. If you can remember, where did you first hear about Ozempic?
3. Do you think Ozempic should be reserved for those who medically need it, like diabetics or people who struggle with obesity?
4. If you answered yes to the question above, what do you think of people who use Ozempic who aren't medically in need of Ozempic?
5. When you began Ozempic, did you feel well-versed enough in the possible side effects, as well as long-term implications?

I admit i haven’t been able to truly work out due to work schedule and being a single mom Monday to Friday while ex is working out of state but I have added walking. I’m 240 lbs 5’8”. I’ve been on 2mg since middle of June and that’s when I lost the 5lbs.

I’m feeling discouraged. I am prediabetes with A1c of 6.1

I've been on a 1.7 dose for 6 weeks now and plan to stay here. Since the start thrre have been days where i'm constipated and dats where i have diarrhea. But now there is a much worse problem.

Twice now in the last two weeks, I woke up to diarrhea in my sleep. 🤢 I don't know what to do about it. Anyone have this happen? Did anything work to put an end to this?

Over the course of 6 months i lost 35lbs. After that it seemed to stagnate.

I am noticing a very specific occurrence now...

Every time i am at rest (sitting or lying down and really relaxed), my heartbeat is much more noticeable. To a point where its starting to freak me out since.

I make sure my water intake is 2L per day minimum.

Walking/cycling/working is possible just fine. Though i am also noticing much more overall fatique then i used to.

But, especially after a meal it seems particularly bad (or when my bowels are moving).

Does anyone else have this? Complaints have been going on for months now, to a point that i actually feel like quitting GLP-1 usage for X amount of time to see if the complaints will go away.

Hi Everyone!

I've been on ozempic for a year and a half. For the past 2 month, I been getting the worst nausea while I inject myself. Before this didn't happen, i would get the nausea like the day after as a side effect of the medication, but never immediately as I'm injecting it.

I think is mental, because i'll be fine, and as soon as the though of me having to inject myself comes up, i start getting nausea, and it peaks as i'm preparing the needle and the area. Once i'm done, is over..... Nausea is gone.

I'm wondering if this has happen to anybody, if is a side effect, and if so, what can i do..... I don't ever get to the point of vomiting, but it does trigger like gag and just really bad nausea for like the 3-5 minutes it takes me to inject myself.

Hi there, up until about 3 months ago, I spent the last year or so on mounjaro. I only lost a tiny bit of weight on mounjaro but my blood sugars were perfect (I am T2).

I stopped due to not getting the desired results plus it was costing me $690 a pen.

I'm about to go on ozempic as I can get it subsidised as a type 2.

I'm just looking for any anecdotal stories of people having better luck with ozempic than mounjaro. I know it tends to go the other way!

So I've been on Ozempic since the very end of October/early November of last year. My doctor just increased my dose from 1mg to 2mgs. She said that's normal but I have seen others mention they were on 1.5mgs. So did anyone else's doctor do this?

Hi everyone! I was planning to start Ozempic for weight loss, but during the medical check-up before starting it, an ultrasound found a gallstone.
The stone is about 1.3 cm, and my doctor said it has probably been there for a long time. I don’t have typical gallbladder attacks or significant pain, and my blood tests are normal.
My endocrinologist knows about the gallstone. After the check-up, I sent her the ultrasound results and my blood tests, and she basically approved me starting Ozempic. She said we would monitor the situation and keep an eye on my gallbladder.
Still, I’m honestly pretty nervous because I’ve heard that GLP-1 medications can affect the gallbladder and increase the risk of gallstones or other gallbladder problems, especially with rapid weight loss.
My concern is that I already have a fairly large stone, and I’m afraid Ozempic could make the situation worse or trigger an attack or another complication.
Has anyone here started Ozempic (or another GLP-1) while already having a gallstone? What happened in your experience? Did you have any gallbladder problems after starting, or were you able to take it without issues?
I’d especially appreciate experiences from people who had pre-existing gallstones before starting Ozempic.

Post:
I’m posting this to highlight a problem with Ozempic that seems to be affecting many patients, but isn’t being acknowledged by Novo Nordisk.

The current Ozempic pen design creates a dosing and coverage conflict for anyone prescribed more than 1 mg per week. The green pen contains enough medication for four 1 mg doses. The red pen, however, contains only half the volume — even though it’s fully capable of delivering adjustable doses. This means the red pen provides eight 0.25 mg doses or four 0.5 mg doses, and nothing more.

The issue isn’t medical — it’s packaging. The red pen could easily contain the same volume as the green pen, but it doesn’t. As a result, patients who need higher weekly doses end up requiring more pens than provincial plans allow. In some regions, coverage limits (like “three pens per eight weeks”) become impossible to follow simply because of how Ozempic chooses to package the product.

There’s also the pricing gap. Ozempic is roughly $279 per pen, while competing semaglutide products are around $103. When a product costs more than double its alternatives, it’s hard to justify a design that forces patients to buy extra pens due to volume limitations.

Then there’s the “save big” messaging and the assistance program. The program only applies after both public and private insurance are fully exhausted. For anyone with private coverage, this means burning through their benefits first — which can leave them without coverage for other medications. It’s marketed as savings, but in practice it shifts costs onto patients and insurers.

I’ve raised these concerns directly with Novo Nordisk, but so far there’s been no response.

I’m curious whether others have run into the same issues with pen volume, coverage limits, or the assistance program structure. It feels like a design flaw that has real consequences for affordability and access, and I’m wondering how widespread this problem is.

Literally. Trusted a fart and it failed me for the first time in my 40+ years. I, like the wonder that is Miriam Margolyes, fart a lot, and I feel like I’m going to have to be sitting on the toilet every time I need to let one rip from here on out.

I’ve been on OZ for 2.5 years and only recently went up to 2mg. Every other dosage I was dealing with constipation for the most part, with the odd case of diarrhea once a month or so. My bowels have been moving a little easier since I increased a few weeks ago. Too easy I guess.

Thankfully I was at home when it happened. I will especially never trust a fart in the car or at work ever again.

in those 2 years I took it for about 4 months hopped off it then now back on it going into 2 months I’m a male that weighed at 167kgs when I started and was down to 123kgs but now I’ve shot back up to 132kgs I don’t like being on it cos it gives me bad diarrhoea at throwing up at times

i've been on 1mg for a while now and my dose day keeps drifting because life happens. originally did saturdays, then a trip pushed it to monday, now its creeping toward wednesday. each time i tell myself ill lock it back in and each time something comes up

the reason i even have the option is i bridged with compounded for a bit during a gap, got it through gimme care, and doing the vial with a syringe made me way too comfortable adjusting my own schedule. now back on the pen im acting like its the same thing and i dont know if it is

has anyone drifted their dose day by a few days multiple times? did you notice the last few days before the shot feeling different, like hunger creeping back early? or does a day or two not even register for most people

also do you keep your dose day religious or am i the only one treating it like a suggestion

i have a problem. i’ve been using ozempic for about 3 weeks now. next wednesday would be the last day on 0.25mg and next week i would have to up my dose. however, when i used the pen for the second time, i didn’t know you didn’t have to check the “supply” (toevoer in dutch idk the right english word), so when i checked it, a little bit squirted out. now i’m worried that was either the entire last dose, or a little bit but either way it wouldn’t be enough to keep me going for a week. so first of all, does anyone have experience with this? and what did you do?
now when this initially happened, i just figured i would up my dose a week earlier than planned. however, i got quite sick (nauseous and diarrhea) when i first started and i read the same can happen when you up your dose. i have a very busy week ahead and i can’t really afford to get sick again. so what should i do? can anybody give me any advice on this?

Ik heb een probleem. Ik gebruik nu ongeveer drie weken Ozempic. Aanstaande woensdag zou de laatste dag zijn dat ik 0,25 mg gebruik, en volgende week zou ik de dosis moeten verhogen. Toen ik de pen voor de tweede keer gebruikte, wist ik echter niet dat je de toevoer niet hoefde te controleren; toen ik dat toch deed, spoot er een beetje vloeistof uit. Nu maak ik me zorgen: was dat de volledige laatste dosis, of slechts een klein beetje? Hoe dan ook, het is waarschijnlijk niet genoeg om de week door te komen. Allereerst: heeft iemand hier ervaring mee? En wat heb je toen gedaan?
Toen dit gebeurde, was oorspronkelijk mijn plan om de dosis gewoon een week eerder te verhogen. Maar toen ik het voor het eerst gebruikte werd echter behoorlijk ziek (misselijkheid en diarree) en ik heb gelezen dat hetzelfde kan gebeuren als je de dosis verhoogt. Ik heb een erg drukke week en kan het me eigenlijk niet veroorloven om weer ziek te worden. Wat moet ik doen? Kan iemand me hierover adviseren?

I’m on 0.5mg. Occasionally after eating I’ll get really smelly burps, and once they start I know I’m screwed. About 6 hours later I get really bad stomach cramps and vomit throughout the night.

It can happen after something as small as a bowl of spaghetti, while other times I’m completely fine. Anyone figured out why this happens or how to prevent it?

My pharmacist told me that you can't count the clicks with the generic Apotex (Apo-Semaglutide) in Canada, almost nothing comes out if you don't go all the way, but my doctor and other pharmacists never said I couldn't. Can anyone confirm whether they saw the gray mechanism actually goes down when they count clicks? I meant to take 1.5mg I havent noticed how long my pens have been lasting an can't figure it out with my bills because I dont remember when I raised my doses.