Physicians are seeing more women turn to weight loss medications before they become pregnant in hopes of lowering their risks of having a miscarriage and other complications, such as preeclampsia and preterm birth.
"Obesity and being overweight are definitely risk factors for multiple adverse outcomes in pregnancy," Ilana Ramer Bass, MD, an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Mount Sinai Morningside and West in New York City, told CBS News. "We try to have people enter pregnancy at a healthier weight, and so having these medications gives us a tool to allow women to lose weight prior to conceiving."
A growing body of research has linked excess weight to pregnancy complications, making drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound promising options for women trying to shed weight quickly to increase their chances of having a healthy pregnancy, or conceiving in the first place. At the same time, little is known about how the medications may affect pregnancy outcomes.
Zepbound has been approved by the FDA for weight loss, while Mounjaro and Ozempic are designed to help patients manage diabetes but has been prescribed off label to facilitate weight loss.
One expert, Andrea Shields, MD, vice chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' committee on clinical guidelines, told The New York Times that the medical community is "all just kind of holding our breath" until more research in humans is available.
As the industry awaits more data, physicians typically recommend women stop taking the drugs at least two months before trying to conceive.
Drugmakers have said they plan to monitor pregnancy outcomes, the Times reported. In February, one study found that women with Type 2 diabetes who were taking glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists when they conceived or in early pregnancy did not have a greater risk of major congenital malformations compared to those taking insulin. Some animal studies, however, have indicated the medications may harm a fetus, which experts say may be a concern if people are still taking the drugs not realizing they are pregnant.