Taking Ozempic makes you three and a half times more likely to suffer life-wrecking erectile dysfunction, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the University of Texas studied more than 1,500 obese, non-diabetic men on the blockbuster drug and found a staggering number experienced sex problems within as little as a month after starting a prescription.
While other research and anecdotal accounts have noted erectile dysfunction as one of the many unpleasant side effects of the drug, this is the first study to assess the degree of risk.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic are taken by more than two million people in the US, including reality star Scott Disick, who was recently outed when eagle-eyed viewers of The Kardashians saw packets of similar shot, Mounjaro, in his fridge.
The researchers found that, not only did semaglutide users have a three and a half times increased risk of the sex problem, they were also almost twice as likely to develop testosterone deficiency
Researchers from the University of Texas found that obese, non-diabetic men were 3.5 times more likely to get a new diagnosis of erectile dysfunction within at least a month of starting semaglutide
Scott Disick is one male celebrity who has been taking a GLP-1 agonist medication to lose weight. Viewers noticed boxes of Mounjaro stocked inside of Scott Disick’s fridge on a May episode of The Kardashians
The researchers used a large database of patient data to identify men without a diabetes diagnosis, aged 18-50, who had a BMI of more than 30 and were prescribed semaglutide — the generic drug in Ozempic and Wegovy — after June 2021.
Men with a prior erectile dysfunction diagnosis were excluded, as well as those taking Viagra and with a history of testosterone deficiency.
They also excluded men who had a prior diagnosis of diabetes, as the condition is a risk factor for erectile dysfunction.
Some 3,094 men matching the criteria were matched to an equal number of non-diabetic, obese men who never received a prescription of semaglutide.
The researchers found that, not only did semaglutide users have a three and a half times increased risk of the sex problem, they were also almost twice as likely to develop testosterone deficiency.
Semaglutide drugs work for weight loss by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which naturally occurs in the body and makes us feel full.
Erectile dysfunction most often happens when blood flow to the penis is limited. For a man to get erect, vessels carrying blood to his penis need to dilate. As a result, more blood flows into the penis and it swells.
The condition can also be linked to nerve damage from surgery; medication, including blood pressure pills and hormone suppressants used to treat prostate cancer; and alcohol.
The researchers speculated that similarly to how the GLP-1 receptor agonist delays the emptying of the stomach, it may also delay the blood flow to the penis.
Dr Shauna Levy, an obesity specialist at Tulane University, also said that the libido component is a ‘big part of it.’
‘We know that GLP-1s affect the reward center of our brain, and for a lot of people, there’s reward in sex,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘And if somehow people aren’t receiving the same reward from sex, then it may affect our libido in some way.
‘I certainly think that’s a possible mechanism. Maybe not for everybody, but for some.’
Studies show semaglutide impacts chemicals in the brain involved with reward pathways and libido.
Lower libido can lead to erectile dysfunction, she added.
She said the results of the study were ‘surprising’ and signaled that ‘there’s a lot more that we need to figure out on this topic.’
Patients who have bariatric weight loss surgery, erectile dysfunction improves and generally so do low testosterone levels.
‘In my mind, I expect that this medicine will act similarly,’ Dr Levy said.
‘We know that weight loss surgery works on multiple different hormonal pathways, and not just one or two, so maybe that has something to do with it, as opposed to semaglutide just targeting the GLP ones.’
Bariatric surgery also naturally raises your hormonal levels, she pointed out.
On the other hand, ‘while GLP-1 receptor agonist medications mimic our naturally occurring hormone, they are not [the exact hormones].’
‘Maybe that has something to do with it, where they target the body. It’s all speculative, until more research is done.’
Dr Levy said the patients taking compounded and semaglutide and ‘possibly’ tirzepatide, the active ingredient in the drug Mounjaro, may see the same increased risk of erectile dysfunction, but she stressed that more research is needed.
She added that while the study found an increased likelihood of erectile dysfunction, ‘It’s still not extremely high risk.’
‘While it might give some men pause in taking a medication, if they’re high risk for cardiac disease or having other complications with obesity, then obviously, they need to weigh the risks and benefits, but they may still choose to continue to take the medication,’ she said.
She added: ‘The scariest thing about side effects is, what if they don’t go away when you stop taking the medication?’
Another thing that Dr Levy said will have to be looked into is whether or not erectile dysfunction after using Wegovy or Ozempic is permanent.
‘Because if it is not, then maybe it’s worth the risk to take. But if it is permanent, then I think certainly more people will think twice about taking medicine.’
Dr Sue Decotiis, a weight loss doctor working in New York, said she had not seen GLP-1 agonist drugs resulting in erectile dysfunction in her 10 years of prescribing them.
But she said: ‘If people do get ED on these drugs, it is most likely to occur in the beginning of treatment when there’s a higher dosage.
‘In the beginning the body is going through a huge metabolic change and there is a lot of fatigue. That affects libido and erectile dysfunction temporarily, but in the long run it helps.’