People are now using the popular weight-loss drug Ozempic to help their polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which causes enlarged ovaries with small cysts.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s daughter Gracie McGraw, 26, revealed she has been taking Mounjaro, another version of the drug, to ease her symptoms.
Mounjaro, the brand name for tirzepatide, is an FDA-approved prescription medicine for people with type 2 diabetes, but some doctors have started prescribing it off-label for weight loss.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) deems PCOS an obesity-related condition, leading some medical professionals to understand why Ozempic and other brands could ease symptoms.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s daughter Gracie McGraw, 26, revealed she has been taking Mounjaro, another version of the drug, to ease her PCOS symptoms
Gracie McGraw (far right) with mother (second from left) Faith Hill, father Tim McGraw and sisters at the TIME 100 Gala in New York City in 2015
Ms McGraw said in an Instagram comment last week: ‘I did use Ozempic last year, yes. I am now on a low dose of Mounjaro for my PCOS as well as working out.’
She previously said: ‘I am on medication for PCOS and it has regulated my hormones and metabolism.’
Ms McGraw first revealed her diagnosis in March last year. She said: ‘I just wanted to share really quick that I have recently been diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome).
‘To get the correct diagnosis you would need two out of the five characteristics of PCOS, and I had four.
‘During my appointment with my endocrinologist, I realized that may [have] been a factor in my issues with weight, so we decided to try a medicine to regulate my body more normally and create the tools to continue to keep my body and myself healthy as I get older.
‘I’m learning to navigate the new blemishes but I don’t think that I would have ever allowed myself to go to a doctors appointment like this unless I had taken the correct steps toward my mental health, because as much as physical health is important, mental goes hand and hand.’
She added: ‘The medicine I’m taking has given me a body I haven’t had in years (maybe ever?) in a good way though. It’s weird to see how your body can change so rapidly but I’m finding new ways to love her and new things to love about her every day.
‘I was prescribed Qysmia and Ozempic (Ozempic is also given to patients who are diabetic, I am not diabetic, so I do not know how it works in that regard).’
Like semaglutide — sold under brand names Ozempic and Wegovy — Mounjaro targets the receptors for hormone GLP-1 to trigger feelings of fullness
Dr Rekha Kumar, an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian and expert in obesity and PCOS, recently told Good Morning America that Mounjaro and Ozempic can both help address insulin resistance, which can cause PCOS
Qsymia is a combination drug of phentermine and topiramate used to treat obesity.
Semaglutide — sold under brand names Ozempic and Wegovy — targets the receptors for hormone GLP-1 to trigger feelings of fullness even if patients have not eaten.
Mounjaro has a similar effect and also targets receptors for the hormone GIP, which works similarly.
PCOS affects one in 10 women in the US.
Polycystic ovaries have a large number of harmless follicles up to 0.3in in size. They are underdeveloped sacs where eggs grow, but the sacs cannot release the egg, meaning ovulation does not occur.
Symptoms include irregular periods or no periods, difficulty getting pregnant, excessive hair growth (usually on the face, chest, back and buttocks), weight gain and hair loss from the head.
The exact cause of PCOS is not known, but it is assumed to be linked to abnormal hormone levels.
One theory is that it is related to resistance to insulin. This means the body’s tissues reject insulin’s effects of controlling the amount of sugar in the blood.
Elevated levels of insulin lead the ovaries to produce excess testosterone, which gets in the way of the development of follicles
Insulin resistance can cause weight gain, which can exacerbate PCOS symptoms.
Dr Rekha Kumar, an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian and expert in obesity and PCOS, recently told Good Morning America that Mounjaro and Ozempic can both help address insulin resistance, which can cause PCOS.
She said: ‘It’s not necessarily that we’re using the meds to treat PCOS, but the meds can be helpful for one of the symptoms of PCOS, which is the actual weight gain and hormonal drive to eat carbohydrate because of the insulin resistance.
‘We’ve learned in the past 20 years that PCOS is actually an insulin-carbohydrate-metabolism problem called insulin resistance, meaning the body makes more insulin in response to carbohydrates.’
Dr Kumar added: ‘And what people often forget about insulin is that it’s a fat storage-promoting hormone, so the more insulin your body is making, the better you are at storing fat.’
Dr Mary Jacobson, chief medical officer at telemedicine company Hello Alpha, told DailyMail.com that the firm treats a large cohort of females with PCOS for excess weight.
She said: ‘Ozempic and Mounjaro are effective in inducing weight loss and improving insulin sensitivity in females with PCOS.
‘Weight loss improves ovulation and regulates menstrual cycles and increases pregnancy rates and decreases rates of endometrial cancer.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk