Concerns Rising Over Risk that Ozempic May Cause Birth Control to Fail

Health experts urge women not to use Ozempic or similar drugs to increase fertility, due to increased risks of birth defects and miscarriage.

Groups on social media, and even some doctors, are using the term “Ozempic babies” to describe children being conceived by women taking the wildly popular diabetes and weight loss drug, despite also being on birth control or being presumed infertile.

The surprise pregnancies are being reported by women in Facebook groups, and on Reddit and TikTok, indicating that they got pregnant while taking birth control and Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or other similar medications, according to reports from various news agencies.

Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro belong to a class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs). Healthcare professionals, including some of the women’s doctors, say there appears to genuinely be an association between the class of medications and unexpected pregnancy on birth control, warning that the drugs may decrease the effectiveness of oral contraception.

Ozempic, Mounjaro Health Concerns

Ozempic (semaglutide) was initially introduced for the treatment of people with Type 2 diabetes. However, amid aggressive advertisements that promoted the weight loss benefits, Ozempic has been increasingly prescribed as a diet drug in recent years, making it a blockbuster treatment that is now used by millions of Americans.

As a result of the popularity of Ozempic for weight loss, Novo Nordisk has introduced a higher dose version under the brand name Wegovy, which is specifically approved as a diet drug. However, it contains the same active ingredient.

Eli Lilly’s competing drugs includes Mounjaro (tirzepatide), approved for diabetes treatment in 2022, and a weight loss version of the drug approved by the FDA last year, marketed under the brand name Zepbound.

Women also report having “Mounjaro babies” as well, under the same circumstances as those who took Ozempic. This could add to the growing concerns over the side effects of the drugs, which are rapidly increasing in popularity.

A study published in October 2023 found that Ozempic triples the risk of the stomach paralysis among users when compared to users of non-injectable weight loss drugs. The research compared the gastrointestinal side effects of Ozempic and other injectable GLP-1 agonists like liraglutide (Victoza and Saxenda) against those experienced by users of Contrave (bupropion-naltrexone), an oral weight management medication.

The findings indicated that about 1% of Ozempic users developed stomach paralysis, compared to 0.7% of liraglutide users and around 0.3% of those on Contrave. The study highlighted that injectable semaglutide and liraglutide were significantly more likely to cause stomach paralysis and bowel obstruction than Contrave.

Although advertisements promote the drugs as safe and effective, with few long-term side effects, former users are now pursuing Ozempic lawsuits, Wegovy lawsuits and Mounjaro lawsuits against the manufacturers, each raising similar allegations that the drug labels fail to adequately warn about the risk of severe and long-lasting side effects, including a form of severe stomach paralysis, known as gastroparesis.

Ozempic and Mounjaro Unexpected Pregnancy Side Effects

According to a USA Today report published last week, both reproductive and weight loss experts say that they are seeing the pregnancies among users of Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Although some users have speculated that women’s fertility may be increasing as a result of the weight loss caused by the drugs, the experts noted that weight loss health benefits are unlikely to explain how women are becoming pregnant while taking birth control pills, leading some health experts to suspect that GLP-1 RA drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are counteracting, or reducing their effectiveness.

The drug labels for Mounjaro and Zepbound, which both contain tirzepatide, highlight data from research that appears to confirm the risk. However, the experts warned women not to attempt to use any weight loss medication to get pregnant, as previous studies have linked weight loss medications to a potential risk of miscarriages and birth defects. Weight loss drugs of any kind generally warn women to stop using the medications for at least two months before attempting pregnancy.

April 2024 Ozempic Stomach Paralysis Lawsuit Update

Given common questions of fact and law being presented in stomach paralysis claims being pursued against the makers of Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro throughout the federal court system, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) decided to centralize all GLP-1 lawsuits in February, transferring complaints filed nationwide to U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As lawyers continue to review and file claims in the coming months, it is widely expected that thousands of claims will be transferred to the GLP-1 MDL, as nearly 2% of the U.S. population has been prescribed one of the GLP-1 medications, either for diabetes treatment or weight loss.

To help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation, Judge Pratter will likely establish a bellwether process to prepare a small group of gastroparesis lawsuits for early trial dates. However, if the parties are unable to negotiate Ozempic settlements or another resolution for the litigation after the bellwether trials, the Court may later remand each case back to the U.S. District Court where it was originally filed for trial.