By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com
16:57 29 Mar 2024, updated 18:03 29 Mar 2024
- A woman in Florida got pregnant just two weeks after starting Mounjaro
- A growing number of women report getting pregnant after taking these drugs
- READ MORE: Women on birth control are getting pregnant after taking Ozempic
A Florida woman with fertility issues has given birth after falling pregnant within two weeks of taking blockbuster weight loss medication.
Marcela Romero had struggled to conceive for three years when she considered starting in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Before starting her IVF journey she wanted to give herself the best possible chance at life so started taking Mounjaro – made by Eli Lilly – to lose weight and keep her blood sugar down.
Just two weeks after starting the medication, she discovered she was pregnant. She is now a mother to a seven-month-old baby girl.
‘She’s very happy, very smiley all the time,’ Ms Romero told Good Morning America.
Ms Romero is one of a growing number of women in the US who have gotten pregnant while taking weight loss medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
Experts have said that this could be due to the drugs, which mimic satiety hormones in the brain, correcting hormonal imbalances caused by obesity and metabolic disorders.
In turn, this could improve fertility odds.
Blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy use the active ingredient semaglutide to suppress appetite and trigger weight loss.
The drugs to the GLP-1 receptor, a protein that triggers hormones in the brain that keep the stomach full and tell the body to stop eating and avoid cravings.
Mounjaro, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, uses the active ingredient tirzepatide, which targets GLP-1 and the hormone glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP).
More and more women are reporting getting pregnant on these medications.
A Facebook group called ‘I got pregnant on Ozempic’ has over 450 members, while people on Reddit threads and TikTokers share notes on how they unexpectedly fell pregnant while taking Ozempic.
‘I got pregnant on Ozempic & was on the pill! Baby boy is due in June,’ one person commented on a TikTok video.
‘My surprise Ozempic baby is almost 4 months old and thankfully very healthy!’ someone else said.
Deb Oliviara, 32, began her course of Ozempic the day after Thanksgiving to shift extra weight that had been making her feel down.
She was taking a birth control pill, though not consistently, but was not worried because had a history of fertility issues.
Two months after she started taking Ozempic, and the same week she reached her goal weight, Ms Oliviara found out she was pregnant.
‘We were open to the idea, but definitely not trying,’ she told USA Today.
‘It was very much a surprise and the only pregnancy, aside from my first, that didn’t come after a loss.’
It is Ms Oliviara’s sixth pregnancy with only two living children, after she loss one baby in the first trimester, another in the second and had a stillbirth.
She is currently ten weeks pregnant and both mother and baby are healthy.
Anna Parker, 38, from Georgia, has struggled for four years to have a second child and is currently undergoing IVF, which involves an egg being removed from a woman’s ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a lab.
Before starting fertility treatments, she started taking Mounjaro in January to lose weight.
‘I spoke to my gynecologist, and she agreed that I could take it and hopefully quickly lose weight,’ she told Good Morning America.
‘So far I’ve lost about 12 pounds, and I’m really looking forwardf to hopefully making a smooth transition to implanting the baby.’
Some research suggests that medications like Mounjaro could regulate hormones in the body linked to fertility, such as estrogen.
For example, the drug has been prescribed for polcystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder that affects one in 10 American women of childbearing age, according to the US Office on Women’s Health.
It causes the ovaries to produce excessive amounts of the male sex hormone androgen due to cysts forming along the outer edges of the organ.
This leads to irregular menstrual cycles, abnormal hair growth, acne, obesity, and thinning fair.
It has also been linked to infertility, as polycystic ovaries have a large number of harmless follicles up to 0.3in in size.
They are underdeveloped sacs where eggs grow, but the sacs cannot release the egg, meaning ovulation does not occur.
Dr Utsavi Shah, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology specializing in obesity medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told USA Today there is nothing in particular about the medications that is making people more fertile, other than the way they interact with birth control pills.
She said: ‘It’s their effect on weight loss that’s helping regulate their menstrual cycles, thereby increasing their chances of getting pregnant.’
Fat cells release estrogen, meaning the more fat a person gains, the more estrogen they’ll have.
Additional estrogen can halt regular menstruation and ovulation, which then makes it more difficult to become pregnant.
Studies carried out in test tubes have found that tirzepatide, Mounjaro and Zepbound’s active ingredient, lessens the effectiveness of oral contraception such as birth control pills, according to the drugs’ labels.
Mounjaro and Zepbound make the stomach take longer to clear out, which can impact how oral medications are absorbed in the body.
Semaglutide does not have as big of an effect on stomach emptying, so it does not contain any warnings about oral contraceptives.
Reproductive and obesity medicine experts said they are seeing the trend of women getting pregnant after taking drugs like Mounjaro and Ozempic, but warned that women should not use weight loss drugs to try and get pregnant.
Research done on rats, rabbits and monkeys, for example, shows that the weight loss medications can result in miscarriage and birth defects if taken while pregnant. No studies have been done on humans.
Women should stop taking the weight loss drugs at least two months before a planned pregnancy, Ozempic’s drugmaker Novo Nordisk recommends.
Dr Allison Rodgers, an OB-GYN and reproductive endocrinologist at Fertility Centers of Illinois, told USA Today: ‘It’s true that, from a scientific perspective, these medications may make it easier for people to get pregnant.
‘But people need to be careful because there could be dangerous consequences if taken while pregnant given the drugs can linger in your system.’
Though Ms Romero’s daughter was born healthy, she told The New York Times that she feared Mounjaro could have caused side effects.
‘My first thought was, well this is great and everything, but do we know, are there any complications with pregnancy? Are there any defects kids are born with?’ she said.
‘Of course there’s no information because it’s so new.’
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
