Ozempic increases your chances of getting pregnant.

Question

A growing number of people are reporting they have become pregnant after using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic despite previous infertility or being on birth control pills.

Comments

This claim that Ozempic increases your chances of getting pregnant is not completely wrong, but is also not completely right. After reading an article by The Fertility Institute of San Diego, it has been found that Ozempic has helped women get to a better health state to become pregnant, but is not considered a fertility drug. Ozempic does help women with weight loss and the regulation of hormones which are two things that have been found to benefit the chances of pregnancy. I would consider this claim to be true as it may help other health factors that help increase pregnancy.

Source: https://fertilityinstitutesandiego.com/ozempic-and-increase-in-pregnancy-whats-the-fertility-connection/

Answer 1

Great Fact check. I agree with the statement that Ozempic increases your chances of getting pregnant. An article that I was browsing through titled, “Ozempic and Pregnancy: What to know”, goes into depth about how, Woman who have irregular periods, GLP-1 medications including Ozempic may increase the individual's chances of becoming pregnant due to the ovary releasing a fertile egg. Therefore, I fully concur with the claims that were given in the article. 

https://www.webmd.com/obesity/ozempic-and-pregnancy-what-to-know

Answer 2

The claim that Ozempic increases your chances of getting pregnant is partially true. There have been anecdotal reports of people becoming pregnant while using drugs like Ozempic despite being on birth control or having previous fertility issues. However, no definitive data confirm this effect. According to Healthline, while some theories suggest Ozempic might improve fertility by helping with weight loss and regulating metabolism, the evidence is still anecdotal. USA Today also reports similar findings, noting that weight loss and hormonal regulation might boost fertility, but the overall impact on how it affects birth control still needs more research.

https://www.health.com/does-ozempic-make-getting-pregnant-easier-8746110

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2024/03/21/ozempic-pregnancy-weight-loss-drugs-fertility/73032645007/

Comments

I thought this was a great fact-check and was very well-written. Causation cannot be drawn between the two events cannot be drawn unless there are formal studies/experiments on the subject. However, reports do indicate a possible relationship and I thought you explained that well.

---

I think this was a really good explanation- you were able to explain the relationship between fertility and ozempic without jumping to conclusions or being biased. I was just wondering if you found any research on how Ozempic might impact birth control? I think you did a good jub at showing how the claim was not fully true. I also brought in the same sources in my fact check, I think they're pretty reliable!

Answer 3

It’s not that Ozempic itself magically makes you more fertile, rather by helping with weight loss and improving overall metabolic health, it might help some people’s bodies get into a better state for pregnancy. When you lose weight and stabilize your blood sugar, your hormones can even out, potentially leading to more regular ovulation. That can boost the chances of getting pregnant if you’re already trying. But Ozempic isn’t designed as a fertility drug.

WebMD: Ozempic and Pregnancy—What to Know

Comments

I like the directness of this fact check. I appreciate that you pointed out that Ozempic's direct effects are not increased fertility, but weightless and overall improving metabolism, and it is these factors that MAY help increase the user's fertility. It is very important that people know not to take Ozempic, when it does not fit their circumstances, and being hopeful for something that has a correlation, but not causation. While this claim is technically true, it might be better to tag this claim as misleading instead.

Answer 4

Using the Fertility Institute of San Diego's article, my group and I found that by taking Ozempic, a woman's insulin sensitivity is improved, meaning the body can better balance hormones and is in a better position to sustain a pregnancy. However, most evidence is anecdotal, and there is little to no clinical data that proves Ozempic and similar drugs can increase overall fertility.

Answer 5

The medication in Ozempic can increase fertility because of it's ability to decrease body mass.  Living with a greater body mass index can decrease your chance of fertility, so although Ozempic may not directly boost your ability to become pregnant, it decreases your body mass index. But Ozempic and other GLP-1s work by slowing down absorption. That means your hormonal birth control pill may not be absorbed as well — leaving you vulnerable to an unintended pregnancy.

Connection Between Pregnancies and GLP-1 Agonists

Comments

Agree fully!

Answer 6

https://www.webmd.com/obesity/ozempic-and-pregnancy-what-to-know

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ozempic-babies-unplanned-pregnancies#How-GLP-1-drugs-like-Ozempic-can-interfere-with-oral-birth-control

According to these sources, Ozempic does seem to have an increase in fertility, but it cannot be attributed to the drug for a couple of reasons. One, there is hardly any research on whether or not it's a direct link to fertility, and if it does increases the chances, it's not the drug itself but the results of using the drug instead like weight loss and blood sugar changes increases the odds of getting pregnant.

Comments

I think you explained that any fertility boost is not from Ozempic, but from its effects such as weight loss and better insulin sensitivity. I also liked how you backed up your fact check with reliable evidence sources like Web MD and Healthline, I used Healthline too! I also think it is super important that you mentioned how limited the research is.

Answer 7

According to the Healthline article, there are doctors/medical professionals out there that do believe Ozempic causes pregnancy. However, the article clarifies in the takeaways that these are just claims made and that there may be other causes for pregnancies while taking Ozempic. I think the claim that Ozempic causes pregnancy is partially true, as it causes weight loss which may make someone more likely to become pregnant/be fertile. I don't think any ingredients in Ozempic specifically directly cause pregnancy.

https://www.universityhealth.com/blog/ozempic-and-fertility

Answer 8

We found that Ozempic can indirectly affect the chances of becoming pregnant through weight loss and managing previously unmanaged diabetes. This means that the drug itself is not what causes the higher chances of fertility, it is the changing hormones and insulin levels that lead to higher fertility rates.

https://utswmed.org/medblog/surprise-ozempic-babies-underscore-links-between-obesity-and-fertility/

Comments

Good use of evidence and sources to support your answer, despite it being short I was able to understand why the original claim was incorrect to a certain extent. However, if that is the case, then shouldn't your tag be something more along the lines of Exaggerated/Misleading or False if you found the drug was not solely causing the problem like the claim said? Keep it up.

Answer 9

This claim is anecdotally true, and multiple women have reported getting pregnant while taking Ozempic despite using birth control methods, but there is not enough research to say that Ozempic is a definite cause of pregnancy. We know that the drug and other GLP-1 drugs like it slow down the movement of food through the body, which affects absorption and can lead to side effects that may make it easier for women to become pregnant, but there remains a lack of consolidated research to prove that drugs such as Ozempic directly induce the risk of pregnancy.

Additionally, the author of the Healthline article has knowledge on community health, but she appears to focus more on mental health and does not seem to be the most knowledgeable source about Ozempic or weight loss.

https://www.webmd.com/obesity/ozempic-and-pregnancy-what-to-know

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/health/ozempic-babies-pregnancy/index.html

https://www.healthline.com/authors/nancy-schimelpfening

Answer 10

There is no published research confirming a connection between Ozempic and birth control efficacy yet, however, Ozempic can increase a patient's likelihood of becoming pregnant because of how the medicine targets hormonal imbalances.

Comments

Your statement is slightly misleading. While it's true that Ozempic can increase a patient's likelihood of becoming pregnant through hormonal changes, these hormonal changes result from the weight loss caused by a reduction of appetite and calorie intake due to Ozempic. Therefore, the hormonal changes are an indirect effect of taking Ozempic, not the original purpose of taking the drug.

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/ozempic-babies
https://fertilityinstitutesandiego.com/ozempic-and-increase-in-pregnancy-whats-the-fertility-connection/