Reports of Surprise Pregnancies While Taking Ozempic Are Surfacing—What to Know
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There are several reports of people becoming pregnant while taking Ozempic.
Doctors say the medication may influence fertility in several ways.
If you become pregnant while taking Ozempic, it's recommended that you stop taking the medication.
While it’s technically designed for blood sugar management in patients with type 2 diabetes, Ozempic has exploded in popularity thanks to its reputation for helping patients lose significant weight. Now, there are reports of people having so-called “Ozempic babies” after using the injectable drug.
TikTok is packed with anecdotes from people who say they accidentally got pregnant after taking Ozempic (which is a brand name for semaglutide). “Be careful on that Ozempic, you’ll end up unexpectedly pregnant,” one woman captioned a tearful video. Another woman joked, “not the summer body I was hoping to have this year,” alongside a photo of herself holding a vial of semaglutide and clutching ultrasound photos in another.
Meet the experts: Jennifer Wider, M.D., women’s health expert and ob/gyn; Mir Ali, M.D., a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA; Kunal Shah, M.D., an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center; G. Thomas Ruiz, M.D., lead ob/gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA
Common Ozempic side effects are straightforward, but as the injectable grows in popularity, so do new terms to describe body changes associated with weight loss, like “Ozempic face,” “Ozempic butt,” and even “Ozempic personality.” But are reports of a wave of Ozempic babies legitimate or is something else going on? Doctors explain.
What are ‘Ozempic babies’?
“Ozempic babies” is a term that’s being used to describe having an unplanned pregnancy while taking Ozempic or similar medications like tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound).
“A significant number of women have reported that they became pregnant while taking semaglutide to lose weight,” explains Jennifer Wider, M.D., women’s health expert and ob/gyn. “Initial reports on social media gained traction, as more and more women reported the same thing, including those who were on birth control.”
Does Ozempic interfere with birth control?
Before we get into that, it’s important to first explain how Ozempic works. Ozempic is in a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists. Ozempic is technically approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for blood sugar management in people with type 2 diabetes, but it’s been used off-label for weight loss. (Worth noting: Fellow semaglutide medication Wegovy is FDA-approved for weight loss.)
The medication mimics a protein in your body called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which helps to increase the production of insulin, a hormone that helps move glucose from your bloodstream into the body’s cells where it’s used for energy, says Mir Ali, M.D., a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA.
Semaglutide also slows down the movement of food through your gut and signals to your brain to eat less food and store less fat in your body, Dr. Ali says.
There are a few reasons why doctors say that Ozempic may impact fertility. One is directly tied to weight. “We’ve seen this in other patients [with obesity or overweight] who lose a significant amount of weight—it increases their fertility,” Dr. Ali says. “Obesity can suppress ovulation and, when it’s reversed, people may become more fertile.”
“This is especially true for people who have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and insulin resistance,” says Kunal Shah, M.D., an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center. “Weight loss can very much help with fertility.”
It's important to note that this only applies to people who had obesity or overweight to begin with. Being underweight can also have a negative impact on fertility.
But absorption of oral contraceptives may also be impacted when you take Ozempic, Dr. Shah says. “They just don’t get absorbed as well and the timing of them also gets messed up,” he says.
Dr. Wider agrees. While she stresses that this is still being researched, she also notes that “Ozempic and other drugs in its class can lessen the effectiveness of birth control by interfering with the way birth control is absorbed.”
That’s why it may be a good idea to talk to your doctor if you’re on Ozempic and don’t want to get pregnant right now. “Patients who are on Ozempic may want to consider getting an IUD or the Nexplanon implant instead,” says G. Thomas Ruiz, M.D., lead ob/gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA. These devices don’t rely on your gastrointestinal system to work properly, and shouldn’t be impacted by you taking Ozempic, he says.
Is Ozempic safe to take during pregnancy?
Semaglutide medications like Ozempic are not FDA-approved for use in patients who are pregnant. The Ozempic website currently states, “It is not known if Ozempic will harm your unborn baby or passes into your breast milk.” Ozempic’s sister medication Wegovy says on its website that, “Wegovy may harm your unborn baby.”
Semaglutide hasn’t been researched in pregnant women but animal studies have found a higher risk of miscarriage linked to the drug.
What happens if you stop Ozempic for pregnancy?
Doctors recommend that you stop taking Ozempic immediately if you become pregnant while taking the drug, Dr. Wider says. (If you’re taking it for blood sugar management, it’s important to consult your endocrinologist to see if you’ll need to start on a different medication instead, Dr. Shah says.)
If you’re interested in becoming pregnant and are on Ozempic, it’s recommended that you stop taking the drug two months in advance of trying to conceive.
If you stop taking Ozempic for pregnancy, Dr. Ali says a few things will likely happen. “Your appetite will return and you may regain the weight,” he says. However, weight regain isn’t a given, especially if you implemented new healthy lifestyle habits when you were on the medication, Dr. Ali says.
If you’re currently taking Ozempic and have questions about how it may impact your fertility, talk to your doctor. They should be able to offer personalized guidance based on your goals.
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