When Penny Gautreaux started taking Rybelsus, an oral version of semaglutide, it didn’t take long for some of the side effects her doctor had warned her about to hit.
“I noticed stomach pain and gastrointestinal distress almost immediately,” said Gautreux, who began taking the medication in the spring of 2023 to manage her type 2 diabetes. Soon after, “no food sounded appetizing,” she added.
After several weeks on the medication, which uses the same active ingredient as the injectable weight loss drug Ozempic, Geautreaux also began slipping into old disordered eating habits, despite having been in recovery.