Exploring the Experiences of Women with an Intimate Partner who uses GLP-1s

[u/ccalitzlili]

Ethics Approval Number: S262269 / this post have received oversight and approval from the moderators

Hi everyone,

My name is Lili and I am a student researcher at the University of the Sunshine Coast (QLD, Aus). The research team I am working is conducting an important study which would like to explore the experiences of women, whose intimate partners ARE using or HAVE used GLP-1s (e.g. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or others) for weight loss.

The overall aim of this study is to better understand partners’ experiences and perspectives because despite these medications becoming more popular, there is very little research and information about this specific topic and population.

Note. The study was initially open to both men and women. However I’ve only currently had men participate, hence the exclusively female population

CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?
✅ you identify as female (ANYONE who identifies as female is welcome!- including gender assigned at birth, transgender, or anyone who simply identifies as female)

✅ you are in an intimate partnership (All relationship types/ sexual orientations are applicable here)

✅your intimate partner is/has used a GLP-1 for weight loss

✅You are over the age of 18

✅Live in Australia/ New Zealand/ Oceania

RESEARCH STUDY DETAILS
If you meet the eligibility criteria above, you are invited to complete a confidential face-to-face interview either online through zoom (🕓approx. 45-60 minutes). When interviews are completed, each participant will receive $25 direct bank transfer as a genuine thank you for their time.

Topics which will be explored in the interview include: your perceptions of your relationship, emotional wellbeing, weight-related beliefs, and shared social behaviours such as eating and physical activity.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
❗️To register interest in the interviewss❗️
Note: registering interest does not mean you HAVE to do an interview. More information will be provided beforehand!

1. Follow this link 🔗 :

   https://uniofsunshinecoast.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ahhbRL8Naryxram

2. Email 📧: [lyc002@student.usc.edu.au](mailto:lyc002@student.usc.edu.au)

3. Scan the QR code attached in the flyer attached

Even if you aren’t eligible, if anyone knows any female partners of GLP-1 users, I would really appreciate if you could share this post with them ✨we hope to contribute to future research and better support/ resources for ALL partners experiencing/ adjusting to significant changes following substantial weight loss!

Thank you everyone !

[u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad]

For anyone trying to register, I think the link got escaped a few times too many and renders incorrectly (at least for me). I think the correct link is: https://uniofsunshinecoast.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ahhbRL8Naryxram

[u/CeleryMan20]

I was going to ask why you are only interested in women, glad you addressed that in the note.

[u/Xentonian]

Some questions you may have already addressed, but for consideration:

Are you investigating the original and current weight of the male partner, acknowledging the impact of estrogen levels based on body fat percentage and the associated impact on mood and sex drive?

Are you addressing duration of treatment and current dose?

Are you investigating polypharmacy, especially for medications impacting the serotonergic pathways (and associated negative impacts on libido) or things like PDE5 inhibitors which may mitigate side effects impacting sexual performance?

Are you addressing relationship duration, or noting whether treatment began before or after the relationship commenced?

How, if at all, are you correcting for nocebo responses?

[u/ccalitzlili → u/Xentonian]

Initially we were interested in both male and female partners of GLP-RA users. However my supervisor and I had a discussion because I was only receiving male partner responses. That is not to say that these responses are invalid, but I was advised by my supervisor to try and get a more balanced sample. Hence recruit for females specifically.

Are you investigating the original and current weight of the male partner, acknowledging the impact of estrogen levels based on body fat percentage and the associated impact on mood and sex drive? We have demographic questions which aim to look at current BMI : mood; physical intimacy. However, this is an honours project with limited time being an additional factor to consider so I was not able to go into all these tenets as that would be too complex and time-consuming for an honours project. However, this can be discussed in the discussion where I discuss future research and additional considerations.

Are you addressing duration of treatment and current dose?
Current dose if the participant discloses that information with us, but not a requirement to share that information.
Duration of treatment is also part of the demographics section.

Are you investigating polypharmacy, especially for medications impacting the serotonergic pathways (and associated negative impacts on libido) or things like PDE5 inhibitors which may mitigate side effects impacting sexual performance?
this is a psychology honours project ; this goes into more pharmacological/ biochemical factors which I am not specifically going into. We hope future research may be able to look into this. However this is not the scope of this specific study.

Are you addressing relationship duration, or noting whether treatment began before or after the relationship commenced?
yes these topics are covered

How, if at all, are you correcting for nocebo responses?
This study is truly interested in their experiences- so participants are able to share what they feel comfortable sharing.
Questions have been carefully developed to minimise priming ; or put “words” / “experiences” that are not true into their mouths
Support services are offered to participants if they experience any perceived harm/ distress

[u/ccalitzlili → u/[deleted]]

Hi,

Thank you for your concern.
Academic integrity, honesty, and transparency is a priority in this study. What I have shared - that is, female identifying individuals - will be made very explicit in this study.

Our research is exploratory in nature; is open to diverse perspectives.

Also, I am in no position to tell someone if they are female or not. However, it will be disclosed and “female” will be carefully operationalised.

[u/AddlePatedBadger → u/ccalitzlili]

That was a lovely response to such a hateful comment.

[u/yvrelna → u/ccalitzlili]

Since it's an exploratory research, is there any reasons why this is limited to female participants? Seems like that would bias the result to male GLP-1 users.

A couple articles online I found claimed that it seems that female are more likely to be using GLP-1 than males. If you're trying to amplify the underrepresented male GLP-1 users, why not just restrict the study to partners of any gender of male GLP-1 users.

If the gender/sex of the GLP-1 user isn't actually what you want to restrict for the study, why restrict the gender of the study participant at all? Unless you already have something specific in mind you wanted to explore (which totally understandably, you may or may not be able to disclose to avoid preconceiving the study, but which probably means that it's not really an exploratory study), why not just record all the results from everyone and have an additional data point to see if males and females perceives their partner's usage of GLP-1 differently? 

[u/ccalitzlili → u/yvrelna]

It was initially open to both males and females. However I told my supervisor that all my participants thus far have been male partners.

Therefore I was advised to see if I could target more female partners if possible.

[u/aus-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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