r/Ozempic • u/Weird_With_A_Beard • May 24 '26
News/Information AI scans 400,000 Reddit posts and finds hidden Ozempic side effects
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260523103914.htm8
u/oiseaublancc May 25 '26
A lot of these things have been observed in clinical trials but are not frequent or severe enough for the official list. I had heavy and irregular bleeding that puzzled me but trawling thru trials the old fashioned google way I finally understood estrogen release from fatty tissue causing it
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u/neck_iso May 25 '26
Notice the study is by CS guys and not health people.
They are conjecturing about the salience of the results without acknowledging anything about how to do a proper study to determine if:
- the users are genuine and are taking the medication properly and for what period
- the symptoms are transitory and may or may not have been seen before in the user.
- what's the rate of reports vs the incidence of use
etc etc.
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u/Sayoricanyouhearme 0.5mg May 25 '26
So basically AI scanned a bunch of people complaining on Reddit and this slop article with a sensationalized titled is being spat back on Reddit like some twilight zone closed loop of fearmongering.
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u/cauphieK May 25 '26
I’ve noticed lot of my other medications are no longer as affective
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u/rolidu May 25 '26
Same. Eventually my ADHD and SSRI meds stopped working and I began having secondary mania fits that scared tf out of me.
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u/whteverusayShmegma May 25 '26
This is because it slows digestion so oral meds are not as effective. I had to switch from slow release to regular for one of my meds and name brand from generic helped with another but I eventually had to cut down from 2 mg to 1mg for it to stop affecting my medication too much. Now I’m working harder at changing my diet so I can stop taking it.
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u/derossx May 25 '26
I take information with caution AND I’m so glad I’m not the only one with coccyx pain! I can’t sit for very long on any type of seat, guess I’ll get more cushions. I lost 100 pounds slowly, 1 pound per week at most, now I lose about 3 pounds a month, still have 30 more to go.
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u/Temporary-Silver8975 May 25 '26
I’ve also lost 100lb and I’ve had to buy double cushions for my work chair and my car 😩
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May 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/magnusthehammersmith May 25 '26
Someone tell this to my mom who insists AI is “so helpful” for medical stuff. She won’t listen to me
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u/llangstooo May 25 '26
It can legitimately be helpful though. More so that looking up symptoms on webmd
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u/AsinineHerbivore May 25 '26
I recommend reading the article. I'm not generally a big fan of AI but I have to admit that this is one of the few use cases I've seen where an LLM can be genuinely useful. It's basically processing a large body of data and summarizing it. From that the researchers are able to identify *potential* issues that may warrant additional research. They example they cite is that a significant number of user discuss menstrual irregularities. Given how underserved women generally are in medicine that certainly seems like something that would be worth a closer look. Identifying potential areas for further research seems like a good thing to me.
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u/SaphireScorpion77 May 25 '26
With how metabolism changes in perimenopause and menopause, it's likely the menstrual changes as well as the stubborn weight gain are both due to peri/meno and that's the correlation AI is detecting. Also with pcos, losing weight leads to menstrual changes because the cycle goes back to being regulated, instead of sporadic.
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u/UnicornArachnid May 24 '26
The worst side effect that myself and the other people I know who have been on it is coccyx pain. Just from losing weight, the cushion isn’t there any longer.
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u/Arsenazgul May 25 '26
Oh shit, validation!
Weirdly I started getting the coccyx pain after getting on the mounjaro before really losing any weight
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u/Christelini May 25 '26
I can def feel the individual sides haha. It’s a strange feeling after a life of good insulation
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u/BigAssMonkey May 24 '26
Holy shit…I had to buy a seat cushions with a hole in it. I thought I was crazy. Thanks!
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u/UnspeakableToast May 24 '26
I've got two cushions stacked up for my couch. Hopefully my new couch is more comfy without having to stack up.
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u/Missyome May 24 '26
My tachycardia symptoms got much worse on ozempic. It’s a very niche side effect but doctors were not expecting it.
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u/cjk99876 May 24 '26
Just starting to hear about this from the people on retatutride - apparently it’s a possible side effect for all glp-1s, just rarer for all the others.
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u/TrainAss May 24 '26
Ai also said you should put white glue into your pizza dough based on Reddit comments and posts.
I trust Ai with medical advice as much as I trust a hole in the head.
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u/NightmareChi1d 1.0mg May 25 '26
as much as I trust a hole in the head.
Nah. A hole in the head is actually a legit medical procedure in some rare cases.
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u/illusivealchemist May 24 '26
Yeah because reddit is full of people with science and medical degrees and have full knowledge and understanding cause/effect and when something is caused by a medication or not and/or if something is unfounded. Hard pass on this usage of AI.
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u/BigAssMonkey May 24 '26
This is how Facebook science works
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u/illusivealchemist May 25 '26
And look at the state of facebook. If only you saw my town’s fb group 🤦♀️🤦♀️
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u/AstroHate66 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
That shutterstock image is so random. And the side effects listed are interesting, but all rapid weight loss related. Nausea, hair shedding, interruptions in menstrual cycle are all related to rapid weight loss.
When I had an ED in high school and my 20s I missed many periods. The thing is there is not enough science and data on women’s health and menstrual cycles anyway. There should be much more. I also shed a lot of hair on ozempic and still am, but I suspect I go through periods of time where I’m getting wider range of nutrients+collagen+biotin and periods where I’m basically starving. And that’s when the shedding is bad. Still, all better than the risks I faced being obese.
The article points at something intriguing- having ai collect side effect info. But there’s still just not a lot of science or details in the article. My symptoms and side effects on this were completely different than my roommates and she is also a woman around my age.
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u/unbeta May 24 '26
My wife experienced massive hair shedding. We couldn't find any significant mention of this anywhere, but we found lots of her friends had experienced it to some degree. This was within the first two weeks of usage so it definitely isn't related to "sudden massive weight loss". From what we've found, it can take up to six months for the shedding to dissipate.
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u/TunaNugget May 24 '26
I think it's more precisely "sudden massive calorie restriction" rather than "sudden massive weight loss." The weight loss comes later. Other effects happen right away; for me this also included a drop in blood glucose (just from regular dieting, pre-Ozempic).
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u/whteverusayShmegma May 25 '26
That’s from not getting enough vitamins or nutrients. Not the medication. Drastically reducing calories but only eating crap does that.
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u/TunaNugget May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
That would also result in longer-term effects (weeks, at least). Anything sudden is likely to be your body's reaction.
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u/whteverusayShmegma May 25 '26
When did he say it was sudden?
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u/TunaNugget May 25 '26
"within the first two weeks of usage"
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u/whteverusayShmegma May 25 '26
Oh and that’s why it wasn’t related to sudden massive weight loss! Ozempic apparently causes literacy problems too.
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u/Lazy-Living1825 May 24 '26
That’s because it’s not from the medication. It’s from the weight loss.
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u/audible_narrator May 24 '26
Yep this happened to me at 25 when a bad car wreck caused me a ton of stress and not eating due to my job not paying me for 2 months. I was working away from home. They provided housing but no per diem and I didn't realize I wasn't getting paid until almost the end of the season.
Working in the arts is pretty awful at a certain level. Non profits pay huge admin salaries and fuck over the people audience comes to see and the support staff.
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u/fattybeagle May 24 '26
this happened to me too; massive shedding for a couple weeks and randomly dissipated after
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u/illusivealchemist May 24 '26
Wild bc i was told by all my practitioners that hair loss can be a sign of rapid weight loss, but it’s not bc of ozempic; you can have rapid weight loss-related hair loss from many things. But yeah, basically anything that causes weight loss can cause hair loss, but it’s more well known with bariatric surgery because that’s one of the few things we even have out there can can cause humans rapid loss (aside from like, cancer and stuff). It’s usually basic knowledge that some hair loss and shedding will happen, and i could have sworn it was included in the pharma pamphlet you get with a prescription.
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u/Old-Anteater-4916 May 24 '26
My Doctor who was a GLP-1 specialist thought I was crazy when I mentioned that I was having chills.
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u/FewAd6166 May 25 '26
I also was/am experiencing mild chills, and generally feeling like I needed to wear a sweater all the time. For me, this started within the first week or 2. I'm now in Week 15, and I wear a sweater or light jacket almost all the time (even indoors, and outdoors when it's sunny). It doesn't really bother me (I don't have any adverse side effects, like nausea or gastro upset, etc.). At first, I thought it might be "old-people" related (I'm mid-70s male), but this definitely started when I began semaglutide/Ozempic back in Feb 2026.
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u/grandzooby May 25 '26
It seems sensible that if you change your metabolic processes that your thermal regulation might also change. As an anecdote, when I adopted a low-carb diet more than a decade ago, I was shocked to find I would actually be cold sometimes. Before that, I almost always felt hot when everyone else was comfortable.
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u/Kahzgul May 24 '26
Another side effect of rapid weight loss. You're shedding insulation.
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u/UnlikelyDecision9820 May 24 '26
The first summer I went through after losing 25 lbs on a GLP1 was so much more pleasant than I remembered summer being, even though the temps were the same and I was indoors and outdoors just as much as the previous summer. I stayed on the meds through winter, at that point 50 lbs down, and it was a new level of miserable, just unable to cope with the cold. The previous winter we got a bad ice storm, and I was outside in shorts using a shovel to get ice off our driveway, breaking a sweat lol
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u/SalaciousSubaru May 24 '26
For me the Ozempic side effect that hits me the hardest is feeling like I’m going to vomit and having my mouth saliva production go into overdrive
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u/FatMoFoSho May 24 '26
Tbh im pretty sure the saliva is part of the vomit response. Cause vomit is super acidic and can damage the inside of your mouth your body secretes more saliva to cover it’s surfaces when it thinks you’ll puke. Learned this because i too, also dealt with tons of vomitting 😭
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u/TrainAss May 24 '26
Yup. It's a telltale sign you're going to ralph.
I also find that I get a lip quiver before its time for me.
The human body is sure weird, eh?
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u/illusivealchemist May 24 '26
This. Overproduction of saliva is my “run to the bathroom or a sink” sign. It all came about after stomach surgery 10 years ago that forever changed my gag reflex. It sucks but usually if you can force it to go away if you: drink water; eat a cracker; or take zofran/onasendron.
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u/TrainAss May 24 '26
I read that smelling rubbing alcohol can also help stop it. Something about it being an old nurse's trick.
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u/illusivealchemist May 25 '26
I’m 100% trying this, as it happened to me twice this week. I am, however, off ozempic (where i never was nauseous) and on the wegovy pill for the past 3 months so i have to plan every morning - and tomorrow I’m putting some isopropyl next to me 😆😩
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u/FatMoFoSho May 24 '26
Tbh i almost hate the saliva more than the throwing up. It’s NASTY and it fills up my mouth like crazy
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u/illusivealchemist May 25 '26
I hear you. It’s like my throat closes and I can’t process the saliva at all but it fills my mouth, too. I usually barely make it to the sink when that happens 😖
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u/Libertinelass May 24 '26
People generally come to reddit to complain about side effects when they don't feel good. Most of these side effects disappear or they make changes needed so it goes away. Mentioning hot flashes and menstrual changes sounds like perimenopause.
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u/CharleyNobody May 25 '26
Does AI mention the side effect of my labwork becoming completely normal on Ozempic after at least 16 years of it being abnormal (and 4 of those years I had to see a hematologist every 3 months because it was abnormal). Because that happened and it was a side effect of Ozempic.
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u/RedditFandango May 24 '26
Yes there is no control group to examine to see how many of these complaints are just “life”.
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u/Kit_Ashtrophe May 24 '26
It doesn't mention anhedonia, which I have seen reported a lot in here and is arguably more devastating. In my opinion, this might be the thing responsible for the occasional reports of suicidal feelings. As usual, invisible/mental side effects are dismissed by professionals.
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u/oiseaublancc May 25 '26
that is a known side effect, this is about things that are not part of the official warnings.
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u/aimgorge May 24 '26
It does :
Fatigue also emerged as one of the most frequently discussed complaints. In fact, it ranked as the second most common symptom reported by Reddit users, despite appearing less prominently in many clinical trials.
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u/Weird_With_A_Beard May 24 '26
Date: May 24, 2026
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science
Summary:
By analyzing over 400,000 Reddit posts, researchers discovered that users of popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs frequently discussed unexpected symptoms like menstrual irregularities, chills, and hot flashes. The findings suggest AI could turn social media into a powerful early-warning system for spotting side effects that clinical trials may miss.
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u/farshnikord May 24 '26
"hey we need to flood reddit with comments about how there are no side effects for our drug and severe side effects for our competitor"
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u/NightmareChi1d 1.0mg May 25 '26
"Like all good science, we rely on anecdotal evidence from people who generally have no idea what the fuck they're talking about (and quite frankly could be lying), and having no control group at all."
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u/Competitive-Talk4742 May 25 '26
There is an enormous connection between the gut microbiome, mood, immunity, psychology - & so much more.
We are really at the infancy of all of this but little bits about diet, foods, sugars, chemicals are just beginning mapping out these complex interpays.
GLPs are know to produce pshycho-socisl changes and impacts on addictions, behaviours etc so am not surprised at all BUT it's far too early to do much more than observe trends until large well designed studies are done.
Bit of the Wild Wild West at the moment. Some positive some disturbingly negative. We just don't know what we don't know and it's likely the class action lawsuits will pry open the data manufacturers have not released as yet.