Women report ‘Ozempic breasts’ while taking weight-loss medications
Ozempic has been linked to a host of bizarre physical changes, including sagging skin and sunken cheeks.
But now women are reporting a side effect called “Ozempic breasts”: their breasts shrink or enlarge.
Doctors say the former is to be expected because when a person loses weight, the fatty tissue in the breasts also decreases, making them smaller.
But the latter is more surprising to experts. One school of thought is that hormonal fluctuations in the body cause temporary swelling or tenderness of the breasts.
Jessica Kahn, from Kansas City, Missouri, revealed that she lost 70 pounds in nine months while taking Wegovy, Ozempic’s sister medication. It also caused her breasts to shrink, which then led to her having a breast reduction
The above shows Jessica Dennis, a mother of four currently living in South Dakota, who said her breasts shrunk during Ozempic
Another theory is that as people get thinner, their breasts simply get bigger to appear taller.
Yet dozens of women are disappointed or pleasantly surprised by the phenomenon.
Among those who reported their breasts shrank after taking the wonder weight loss drugs was Jessica Kahn of Kansas City, Missouri.
She lost more than 30kg in nine months while taking Ozempic’s sister drug Wegovy and was delighted with the results, which meant she could have a breast reduction.
But while she was taking the medication, she also shared photos showing her breasts starting to shrink as the weight came off.
“I couldn’t be happier with my results and can’t wait to keep going,” she said, “the side effects can be intense, but for me it’s worth it in return for the confidence I gain, the comfort I get I feel in it. my own skin, and the chance to finally get a breast reduction’.
And in a second case of breasts shrinking while on the drug, Jessica Brown, 47, of Kentucky, said that after losing just 40 pounds on Ozempic, her breasts sagged.
“My breasts have definitely become sagging,” she told the BBC Los Angeles Times.
There have also been a number of cases reported online where people’s breasts actually became enlarged while taking the drugs.
In a Reddit thread, a man shared how his wife became upset because she couldn’t seem to lose any weight as her breasts grew bigger and her shirt tightened.
“I feel bad for both of us because of the zero weight loss,” he wrote, “but doubly bad for her because she is upset about her chest and now feels so uncomfortable and insecure about her clothes even more than usual.”
A second person commented on the post saying they were experiencing this too: ‘I’m experiencing this too and I’m 100,000 percent sure I’m definitely not pregnant.
‘I think in my case it’s because I’m losing the fat on my sides, which makes my breasts both look and feel bigger. It’s a situation where they don’t fade into my side fat as much as they used to.”
One theory is that fat cells house the female sex hormone estrogen.
When a person begins to lose weight, the cells begin to release this hormone, which causes a spike in its levels in the body.
This can then cause the breasts to swell, as higher levels can cause them to retain more water or, as in the menstrual cycle, stimulate them to temporarily grow more breast tissue.
Another theory suggests that the weight loss patients experience helps stimulate blood flow throughout the body, including to areas such as the breasts, causing them to increase in size.
Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, a plastic surgeon in San Francisco, said in a TikTok video, “Any time you lose a large amount of weight in any way, your body will change.
“It’s going to be a little deflating because you’re going to lose fat.” And as you lose fat, your skin loosens, causing the face and breasts to sag.”
He added: ‘When it comes to the face, you can treat it with fillers or… a facelift.
‘But when it comes to the breasts, the filler really won’t work. We should start thinking about a breast lift to remove the excess skin and make it perkier again, or placing breast implants to regain some volume.’
More than 5 million Americans were estimated to be using a weight-loss drug like Ozempic by the end of 2023, according to an analysis of electronic health records by Epic Research.
And this number is only expected to rise, with an estimated 42 percent of adults in the US suffering from obesity.
Ozempic and many similar medications are intended to be reserved for patients with type 2 diabetes, but are often prescribed off-label by doctors for weight loss.
Its sister drug Wegovy, which also uses semaglutide, is approved in the US for weight loss.