Wegovy/Saxenda for weight loss?

[Anonymous]

It’s really a shame these drugs are so expensive. We actually have a viable solution to the obesity epidemic here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes but Calibrate will guarantee you get the prescription for $25 or less and in the rare instance Calibrate isn't successful then you are out of your one year contract with Calibrate. So if you can't get it done with your primary and insurance in your own I highly recommend Calibrate (which does more than dispense medication).

But they can’t even do that with certain insurance. They won’t even let me pay cash because of my insurance company which is beyond weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes but Calibrate will guarantee you get the prescription for $25 or less and in the rare instance Calibrate isn't successful then you are out of your one year contract with Calibrate. So if you can't get it done with your primary and insurance in your own I highly recommend Calibrate (which does more than dispense medication).

They don’t guarantee it for $25 if you haven’t met your deductible for the year. They also don’t guarantee they can get you Wegovy/Ozempic. It might be one of the other less effective (for weight loss) GLP-1 agonists like Trulicity, Saxenda, Rybelsus, etc. It also might only be $25 through a manufacturer coupon which won’t last forever, and everything we know about this class of drugs says you need to be on it to maintain weight loss. And I’ve heard the medical/nutritional service they provide beyond being willing to duke it out with insurance is lackluster and not worth the money.

[Anonymous]

Eh - I want to believe but am waiting for the longterm health risks of this stuff to emerge like it has with every other medicine before it for weight loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh - I want to believe but am waiting for the longterm health risks of this stuff to emerge like it has with every other medicine before it for weight loss.

Sure but this one has been used for years and the health impact of loss of weight has to be assessed in the calculation as well.

My guess is that there will be a very slight uptick of pancreatic issues associated with use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a PP whose insurance refuses to cover Ozempic without a T2 diabetes diagnosis. Got some blood work back and my A1C is normal but my insulin resistance is horrific because of my PCOS, or maybe just because I’m so fat, to a point where I’m kind of freaked out. This medicine would really help me! My PCP is going to keep working on it for me but doesn’t seem hopeful. I straight up asked her if she would just diagnose me with diabetes and she said “well, that would be fraud.” Oops! Sorry doc.

I think I’m going to try to get it from a Canadian pharmacy. It’s still expensive but about a quarter of the cost here.

Why wouldn't she prescribe WeGovy if you're so fat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s really a shame these drugs are so expensive. We actually have a viable solution to the obesity epidemic here.

There are a LOT of side effects. It's not a magic cure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh - I want to believe but am waiting for the longterm health risks of this stuff to emerge like it has with every other medicine before it for weight loss.

It caused inflammation in me at the 2nd lowest dose, leading to severe abdominal pain and apparently aggravating an infection I wasn't aware I had. I had to stop taking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a PP whose insurance refuses to cover Ozempic without a T2 diabetes diagnosis. Got some blood work back and my A1C is normal but my insulin resistance is horrific because of my PCOS, or maybe just because I’m so fat, to a point where I’m kind of freaked out. This medicine would really help me! My PCP is going to keep working on it for me but doesn’t seem hopeful. I straight up asked her if she would just diagnose me with diabetes and she said “well, that would be fraud.” Oops! Sorry doc.

I think I’m going to try to get it from a Canadian pharmacy. It’s still expensive but about a quarter of the cost here.

Why wouldn't she prescribe WeGovy if you're so fat?

She wants to but it’s $1600 a month out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really a shame these drugs are so expensive. We actually have a viable solution to the obesity epidemic here.

There are a LOT of side effects. It's not a magic cure.

For some people it essentially is, though. I have a close friend who has lost 45 lbs easily with minimal side effects. It is causing her to do some work in therapy because it is causing her to examine many years of self-flagellation about “self-control” that turned out to be inappropriate self-loathing; it turns out on Wegovy “self-control” is a non-issue. In other words what she perceived as a moral failing turned out to be a straightforward physical issue.

What is interesting is that though she has very good blood sugar levels (surprisingly good A1C for instance), she always believed that her blood sugar levels were hiding some pre-diabetic issues because she would occasionally have issues with hypoglycemia (measured with a pin prick). She has been tested for blood sugar issues many times but her fasting tests have always come back in very healthy ranges. But after about a month on Wegovy, after she adjusted (a couple of weeks) but before she lost significant weight, she was calling me to talk about how much generally “better” she felt. She wasn’t hungry all the time, wasn’t thinking about food all the time, but also as she said she just “felt better.” Her take on it is that she’s had low-level blood sugar issues for years, that were undetectable by normal A1C tests, but that the Wegovy alleviates. She had to stop Wegovy for about two weeks a month ago because of supply issues and not only did the food cravings come back, she said she felt a lot worse generally. She is trying to figure out what to do now because she doesn't want to stop the Wegovy even though she is almost at her goal weight because she feels so much physically better on it. Oddly her fasting A1C hasn’t changed much at all, but she hasn’t had any hypoglycemic incidents since she started.

I sort of wonder if there are a lot of sub clinical diabetics walking around out there, probably people who struggle with weight.

I keep asking her to do a DCUM AMA because I think folks would find it interesting but so far she isn’t interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh - I want to believe but am waiting for the longterm health risks of this stuff to emerge like it has with every other medicine before it for weight loss.

Ozempic was developed in 2012. It was put on the market in 2017 to treat diabetes. It’s now just been reclassified as a weight loss drug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a PP whose insurance refuses to cover Ozempic without a T2 diabetes diagnosis. Got some blood work back and my A1C is normal but my insulin resistance is horrific because of my PCOS, or maybe just because I’m so fat, to a point where I’m kind of freaked out. This medicine would really help me! My PCP is going to keep working on it for me but doesn’t seem hopeful. I straight up asked her if she would just diagnose me with diabetes and she said “well, that would be fraud.” Oops! Sorry doc.

I think I’m going to try to get it from a Canadian pharmacy. It’s still expensive but about a quarter of the cost here.

Why wouldn't she prescribe WeGovy if you're so fat?

She wants to but it’s $1600 a month out of pocket.

Her insurance company is not covering the cost of the Wegovy prescription. Many are not. Therefore the only way to get it is either through a diagnosis of diabetes (and then get a prescription for Ozempic, its other name, which many insurance companies are covering) or to pay out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really a shame these drugs are so expensive. We actually have a viable solution to the obesity epidemic here.

There are a LOT of side effects. It's not a magic cure.

For some people it essentially is, though. I have a close friend who has lost 45 lbs easily with minimal side effects. It is causing her to do some work in therapy because it is causing her to examine many years of self-flagellation about “self-control” that turned out to be inappropriate self-loathing; it turns out on Wegovy “self-control” is a non-issue. In other words what she perceived as a moral failing turned out to be a straightforward physical issue.

What is interesting is that though she has very good blood sugar levels (surprisingly good A1C for instance), she always believed that her blood sugar levels were hiding some pre-diabetic issues because she would occasionally have issues with hypoglycemia (measured with a pin prick). She has been tested for blood sugar issues many times but her fasting tests have always come back in very healthy ranges. But after about a month on Wegovy, after she adjusted (a couple of weeks) but before she lost significant weight, she was calling me to talk about how much generally “better” she felt. She wasn’t hungry all the time, wasn’t thinking about food all the time, but also as she said she just “felt better.” Her take on it is that she’s had low-level blood sugar issues for years, that were undetectable by normal A1C tests, but that the Wegovy alleviates. She had to stop Wegovy for about two weeks a month ago because of supply issues and not only did the food cravings come back, she said she felt a lot worse generally. She is trying to figure out what to do now because she doesn't want to stop the Wegovy even though she is almost at her goal weight because she feels so much physically better on it. Oddly her fasting A1C hasn’t changed much at all, but she hasn’t had any hypoglycemic incidents since she started.

I sort of wonder if there are a lot of sub clinical diabetics walking around out there, probably people who struggle with weight.

I keep asking her to do a DCUM AMA because I think folks would find it interesting but so far she isn’t interested.

When did she start taking it?

[Anonymous]

I think she started last August. I will have to ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s really a shame these drugs are so expensive. We actually have a viable solution to the obesity epidemic here.

There are a LOT of side effects. It's not a magic cure.

For some people it essentially is, though. I have a close friend who has lost 45 lbs easily with minimal side effects. It is causing her to do some work in therapy because it is causing her to examine many years of self-flagellation about “self-control” that turned out to be inappropriate self-loathing; it turns out on Wegovy “self-control” is a non-issue. In other words what she perceived as a moral failing turned out to be a straightforward physical issue.

What is interesting is that though she has very good blood sugar levels (surprisingly good A1C for instance), she always believed that her blood sugar levels were hiding some pre-diabetic issues because she would occasionally have issues with hypoglycemia (measured with a pin prick). She has been tested for blood sugar issues many times but her fasting tests have always come back in very healthy ranges. But after about a month on Wegovy, after she adjusted (a couple of weeks) but before she lost significant weight, she was calling me to talk about how much generally “better” she felt. She wasn’t hungry all the time, wasn’t thinking about food all the time, but also as she said she just “felt better.” Her take on it is that she’s had low-level blood sugar issues for years, that were undetectable by normal A1C tests, but that the Wegovy alleviates. She had to stop Wegovy for about two weeks a month ago because of supply issues and not only did the food cravings come back, she said she felt a lot worse generally. She is trying to figure out what to do now because she doesn't want to stop the Wegovy even though she is almost at her goal weight because she feels so much physically better on it. Oddly her fasting A1C hasn’t changed much at all, but she hasn’t had any hypoglycemic incidents since she started.

I sort of wonder if there are a lot of sub clinical diabetics walking around out there, probably people who struggle with weight.

I keep asking her to do a DCUM AMA because I think folks would find it interesting but so far she isn’t interested.

Ozempic isn’t having the same supply issues and it is the exact same thing. She can take it instead.