- Posted February 23, 2026
Results Outweigh Side Effects Among Ozempic/Wegovy Users, Study Says
Side effects like nausea or vomiting are common among folks taking Ozempic/Wegovy, but they’ll grin and bear it if they think they’re losing weight, a new study finds.
The drugs’ perceived effectiveness — lost weight, less appetite, fewer food cravings — outweigh GI side effects, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
“There’s been a lot of focus on the side effects of GLP-1 medications — nausea, digestive issues — and whether they're worth it,” said senior researcher Morgan James, an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
“What we found is that for many users, the calculus is straightforward: If the drug helps them lose weight, they’re willing to tolerate significant discomfort,” he said in a news release. “That tells us something important about the demand for effective weight loss options and how we need to think about supporting such patients.”
Semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) is a well-known glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drug.
These cutting-edge weight-loss drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food.
For the new study, researchers analyzed 60 anonymous, publicly available reviews from the health website Drugs.com, in which semaglutide users evaluated their experience with the drug.
“Ozempic has become a cultural phenomenon, but much of the public conversation has been driven by celebrity endorsements and social media trends rather than the voices of everyday users,” said lead researcher Abanoub Armanious, a graduate student in epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey.
“Our study cuts through the noise to ask a simple question: What do people actually experience when they use this medication for weight loss, and what shapes their decision to keep going or stop?” Armanious said in a news release.
About 62% of the semaglutide users said they’d experienced side effects like nausea or vomiting. However, these side effects didn’t significantly influence their satisfaction scores or decision to keep taking the drug.
“I have had all 5 of the main side effects, nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. I am happy with the weight loss, so am learning to manage these,” one sample review read.
“What it has done is to force me to give up bad habits because I do not like staying nauseous,” another said. “I do believe this negative reinforcement will make me sustain weight loss.”
On the other hand, people who experienced little to no weight loss were far more likely to drop semaglutide.
“To date, I am not losing anything and most weeks I have gained the weight back,” one patient wrote.
Overall, more than two-thirds of participants (67%) reported weight loss, reduced appetite or lowered food cravings while taking semaglutide, researchers found.
Future studies could use online reviews to see whether patients’ attitudes differ based on sex, and how their perception of semaglutide changes over time, researchers said.
More information
UCLA Health has more on GLP-1 side effects.
SOURCES: Rutgers University, news release, Feb. 10, 2026; Journal of Medical Internet Research, Jan. 9, 2026
