I see a lot of posts on tumblr about how horrible ozempic is. I always feel weird disagreeing. But I think it's important to talk about why I disagree.
Ozempic is not, as many people, including my previous doctor, would say, an appetite suppresant. It is a GLP-1 agonist. The primary function of an agonist is to bind to its respective organic compound to promote secretion of hormones - in this case, insulin. Its presence in the body also decreases glucagon. GLP-1, like most hormones, is complex, and what it does to the body is complex. A side effect of increased GLP-1 activity is reduced appetite.
The reduced appetite is a *side effect* not the purpose, and for people like me who take ozempic to treat for diabetes, it's been life-changingly helpful.
I do not want a world in which ozempic is banned because it's a "weight loss drug" because it's not. I do not appreciate the posts about how serious the side effects are, because it's the safest diabetes medication on the market. I do not consider people posting things with the tag "anti-ozempic" to be my allies, because that reductive view on medicine is the same all or nothing mentality as doctors that refused to treat me for ten years because I was fat.
Has Novo Nordisk done some shitty things regarding advertising and scarcity? Yes they have. Is using ozempic for the sole purpose of weight loss bad? Absolutely. But I think it's really, really important that we stay clear and consistent about why.
Taking away life-saving medication from people with a debilitating lifelong condition in the name of thinness has and will kill people. Fatphobia is often also ableism. Ozempic helps people like me, people with diabetes, live their lives. And the fact that my voice has been drowned in a sea of healthy people complaining about "ozempic face" is the problem. The fact that Novo Nordisk started marketing their product as a weight loss medicine knowing they wouldn't be able to keep up with demand is the problem. Ozempic itself is not the problem.
