I had digestive issues in spades the first time I took semaglutide (Wegovy) two years ago. It worked well - lost 53 pounds over the time I took it - but the digestive issues ultimately got to be too much.

I had doubled-over cramps and churning in my gut, nausea and chronic diarrhea. I also had what my family called "death burps," which were foul enough to bowl over everyone in a family car or anyone near me while sitting on our couches watching a streaming show with our family.

The worst of it was fecal incontinence and random vomiting.

The fecal incontinence happened in bed at home and then in a cruise ship bed. Just mortifying, humiliating. The reason for this was basically runaway diarrhea. At home, I started using bed pads for confidence sleeping, though those two instances were it, thankfully.

The random vomiting mostly occurred at home in our toilets, often in the mornings. I eventually had several incidents of random, uncontrollable vomiting in the car. Three times this occurred when we could not instantly pull over for me, and I made a mess in one of our vehicles. One of these times made us late to a play we were attending, as we had to go back home to clean the car and for me to clean up.

Another time I was in a choir room on Easter Sunday, and it hit me so hard I could not make it to a restroom that was not real close to where I was. I vomited on the carpet right in the middle of our large church's back lobby on Easter.

I also got hit with the urgent need to vomit on a 5-hour trip mostly on an interstate to see my in-laws. We couldn't pull over, so my husband told me to vomit out the window. Evidently I lack skill in this, cause I guess my head wasn't far enough out the window, and the wind blew the vomit back in the window and sprinkled everyone in the car.

My insurance didn't cover me past that year, and I had asked to be switched to another glp-1, which didn't work well for me or have time to really work for the rest of that year.

The solution for me has been how these shots are being customized to me now that I'm taking them again in 2026, since I have insurance coverage again. I am taking each dose for 3 months so my body can accustom to it. This has been maddeningly slow for weight loss purposes, but my side effects have been extremely minimal.