A mother is warning others about the risks of Ozempic after she suffered a potentially deadly complication that left her in pain ‘worse than childbirth’.
Michelle Stesiak, who is in her fifties and from South Carolina, was initially thrilled to get a prescription for the shot and said she was easily losing weight.
But just six weeks in, the mother was jolted awake at 3am in the morning with piercing pain running from under her breasts, around her left side, to her back. It was so bad she said she couldn’t speak, move or let even a blanket touch her sides.
Doctors initially thought she might have a ‘twisted bowel’, a condition where part of the intestine twists around itself causing a blockage.
Michelle Stesiak, in her fifties and from South Carolina, says she was woken up by the pain at 3am which was so excruciating she could not touch her sides (stock)
She was diagnosed with pancreatitis, a potentially deadly condition where the pancreas — an organ in the upper abdomen that manufactures insulin to help regulate blood sugar — becomes inflamed.
The condition can prove fatal if the inflammation cuts off the blood supply to part of the pancreas, leading this area to die and become infected — causing sepsis. It can also trigger severe internal bleeding if toxins and enzymes leak from the organ and damage nearby blood vessels.
Describing the pain, the mother said: ‘I thought I was dying. It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced.
‘I was immediately in the fetal position. I couldn’t speak. I was vomiting profusely and I had full-blown diarrhea.
‘You couldn’t touch my stomach — even a blanket touching it was excruciating.’
Her case was revealed by Johann Hari in Magic Pill, The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight Loss Drug, a new book that delves into the benefits and risks of the new weight loss drug.
She is one of several woman who came forward to tell the author about their experience and warn others over the potential risks.
Pancreatitis is considered to be a possible serious complication of Ozempic, with those who have a family history of the disease told to avoid the drug.
It comes amid a surge in the popularity of Ozempic, with millions more Americans taking the drug. Some surveys suggest as many as one in eight Americans have now tried the drug
Studies suggest Ozempic users have an up to nine times higher risk of developing the complication compared to those not on the drug.
But it is still considered uncommon among users, affecting about one in a hundred to one in a thousand people on Ozempic.
Four out of five patients who suffer from pancreatitis while on Ozempic make a full recovery.
But for others it can lead to serious complications and, in rare cases, death.
In rare fatal cases, the inflammation causes an area of the pancreas to lose its blood supply. This causes the tissue to die, or necrosis, which can then become infected with bacteria.
The bacteria can then spread to the blood and cause sepsis, which triggers widespread organ failure and death.
Ms Stesiak said she had been visiting her daughter in Pittsburgh from her home in Myrtle Beach at the time her pancreatitis occurred.
She was rushed to hospital by her son-in-law, where — once tests showed her pancreas was in trouble — physicians first asked whether she was a heavy drinker or had gallstones before suspicion landed on Ozempic.
Since the scare, Ms Stesiak has quit the drug and recovered a month later. She is now warning others over the risks, saying: ‘It can cause pancreatitis, and very quickly. It’s something you don’t want to mess around with.’
Doctors are not certain how Ozempic may cause the condition, but leading theories suggest it may be linked to the drug binding to receptors for the satiety hormone glucago-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in the pancreas.
One hypothesis suggests that the drug causes the organ to start manufacturing more insulin than normal, which can lead to it becoming inflamed.
But others have said the inflammation may be linked to changes in the metabolism caused by the drug, shifting how the pancreas functions.
Pancreatitis was just one of the several risks that Ozempic poses to people’s health, with others including an up to 75 percent higher risk of thyroid cancer and a bigger risk of cosmetic complications such as ‘Ozempic butt’ and ‘Ozempic face’.
But experts are still warning about the ‘unknown, unknowns’, or the negative effects the drug could be having that won’t emerge for decades.
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, has been tested for decades — but primarily in people who are obese or have type 2 diabetes.
Many are taking the drug off-label, however, who do not fit into this category.
