Bizarre Side Effects of Ozempic Include Sagging Skin and Crazy Dreams, Claim Users

Millions of people are turning to Ozempic, a drug for diabetes that helps shed unwanted pounds. Ozempic has been gaining national attention as celebrities and influencers have revealed they've lost weight in a short amount of time thanks to the medication. In addition, social media has been buzzing about it and on TikTok the hashtag #Ozempic has been viewed over 936 million times. In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved the injectable medication with a higher dose of the active ingredient in Ozempic, called semaglutide, to treat obesity. The brand name is called Wegovy and people can often see results within the first week. There's been much debate about Ozempic, as well as safety concerns, and people are sharing the strange side effects they've experienced online and what others should know before taking. 

Natasha Robinson has been taking Ozempic for a year, according to an interview she did with PEOPLE, and often posts about her experience. In one TikTok, the 37-year-old from Texas revealed that since she's been taking the drug, she no longer feels like she has to "pee all the time." She went on to say, "I'm someone who used to have to get up five or six times a night to go to the bathroom and I don't get up at all anymore. Not once, which is insane and wonderful." She continued, "I don't know if this is a really rare side effect, but I did Google it and it is a side effect." 

An influencer named Kailey with the handle @theegeriatricmillennial has been taking by Mounjaro and did a two part TikTok series with a lengthy explanation about how she lost peripheral vision in both eyes and ended up in the emergency room thinking it was a stroke.. She experienced a sudden impairment in her vision with a sharp migraine and was "nervous by how quickly it came on." Her family convinced her to go to the hospital and she learned it wasn't a stroke. However, she explained she's skipping meals because the drug is keeping her fuller and she had " hypoglycemia". She added, "If I wasn't on this med I wouldn't skip a meal." She shared that while the last 30 weeks that she's taken the medication "have been great," she wants people to remember that the drug might be life-changing, but can have potential side effects that people need to listen to." 

There's plenty of evidence that Ozempic is effective with weight loss, but in addition to dropping a few pounds, some people are waking up to vivid wild dreams they didn't expect. Several users of the drug are coming forward and revealing the wild dreams they're having as a result of the medication and there's even an "ozempic dreams" TikTok where people can share the dreams they're had while on the drug. The Wall Street Journal reports a woman named "Chery McLemore was recently enjoying watching a parade of cows and bulls at a cattle auction with actor Matthew McConaughey. Then he started climbing atop the small pet llama she had brought, and she had to raise her voice to tell him to stop. 'Fine, you can stay with your llama, I'm leaving!' Mr. McConaughey screamed before storming off. Then Ms. McLemore woke up."  Other wacky dreams according to the WSj included, "joining the cast of The Golden Girls and preparing to rob a museum with Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck." (Ozempic made its own list of side effects.)

Some of the users of the drug admit this isn't the usual type of dreams they're used to having. According to the WSJ, "Ms. McLemore, a mother of two from Amarillo, Texas, who takes Wegovy, said she typically used to dream about her family, but since taking Wegovy has had slumber meetups with celebrities. In addition to attending the cattle auction with Mr. McConaughey, she has shopped for shoes with "Jurassic Park" actor Jeff Goldblum, seen an eye doctor with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp and toured North Korea with Minnie Pearl of "Hee Haw" family." But there's a reason why this could be happening. Dr. Caroline Apovian, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of a weight-loss center at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, told WSJ that "Ozempic may trigger strange dreams because it promotes the production of a gut hormone that has receptors in the brain. The drug may also make the user expend more energy while they're asleep, which could lead to vivid dreams," she said.

Dr Jessica Kiss D.O, a board certified family doctor and mom of four shared in TikTok that she's always struggled with obesity and tried Ozempic. She opened up about the side effect she's experienced she called "Ozempic face" and explained how it's affected her. "Treating my disease of obesity, I went ahead and started Ozempic, like many other people in this country have since." She added, "One unintended consequence that I've suffered like many do is Ozempic face. You ever hear the [saying] fat don't crack," she asked. Dr. Kiss then posted a photo of herself from 2020 and explained she didn't have a wrinkle at all, but now she does. "Notice how my face looks pretty hollow and wrinkles galore. It's a consequence of rapid weight loss over the age of 30." She went on to say how there's less fat in her face "and nothing to hold it up" because she has less elasticity than she did when she was younger. While that's a side effect she doesn't want to experience, she has no regrets. "The health benefits of having this disease under control far outweighing this."

GI issues are one of the most reported side effects of taking Ozempic, according to Dr. Chisom Ikeji who states on her TikTok profile that she's a doctor  "Giving Health & Skincare Tips, Not Medical Advice." Ozempic can cause "debilitating" GI issues in some people, she said  in a clip about the "miracle" drug. Dr. Ikeji explained, "I'm a doctor who believes in health at every size, but I do see the huge benefit of these newer weight loss drugs." She added, "By far the most common side effect is gastrointestinal intestinal effects. That includes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,  constipation, gas and heartburn. Like all medications, it will affect people differently and some people find these side effects literally debilitating and they can't take the medication. The studies do state, it's usually transient though and will go away with time."

In an interview with PEOPLE, Jillian Michaels explained why she isn't for the weight loss trend. "I have taken at least eight family friends' parents off of this drug. They're getting heart palpitations, they're nauseous, they feel [bad.]. They feel so awful that it's motivated them to reverse their type 2 diabetes." The well-known trainer also shared how ineffective the drug can be once you stop the weekly injections. "Once they get off of the drug, it does the rebound effect. So you're not gaining anything. You get off the drug in a year and go all the way back. You've not learned anything. You've not built any physical strength or endurance. You haven't learned how to eat healthy." Michaels encouraged everyone to do their research on the drug and said, "The truth of the matter is, Ozempic has some pretty significant side effects. Do your homework on it. The results are not lasting, in a very large part."