Lori Falce: Feeding into fatphobia
Dec. 8—My inbox is jammed with emails about Ozempic.
The drug, generic name semaglutide, is an injectable used to treat Type 2 diabetes. Combined with diet modifications and exercise, it has seen effectiveness in lowering or stabilizing blood sugar for those patients.
That's important to me. I'm not diabetic, but my husband was. His high blood sugar was a contributing cause to his death. My uncle died last year after battling diabetes for years. It's a disease that demands more attention and requires more accessible treatment.
But no one is sending
me emails because of my pancreas. No one cares about my blood sugar. It's fine, by the way.
I know that's not why they're spamming me about Ozempic — or Wegovy or Mounjaro. I know that because they generally are not coming from doctors.
They are coming from companies promising me smaller jeans. They want me to know the unattainable dream of thinness could be just a prescription away. They are selling me not health but perfection.
It's a promise that I have fallen for more than once. Weight Watchers? Nutrisystem? Slim Fast? Been there, done that. Stomach stapling? I've got the scars. (Spoiler alert: it didn't work.)
I have spent years lamenting the crippling cost of insulin — a cost which has skyrocketed at a rate untethered to its research and costs. People have died or severely damaged their health by skimping or skipping doses to stretch their vials.
That makes it galling to see Ozempic and its brethren not just prescribed off-label for weight loss. It was also retooled with separate FDA approval for that purpose, giving us Wegovy. The worst part is that this push is not for treatment of obesity. The average weight loss is 14 pounds over seven to 12 months, according to clinical studies.
Fourteen pounds? Wegovy has a 28-day cost of an average $1,627, according to GoodRx.com, a site that helps consumers find the best prices for their medications. That's about $11,389 to $19,524 for that average weight loss.
But drug companies and doctors alike continue to make weight loss a goal worth any price, just like fatness is a moral failing worth condemning. The obese are routinely castigated by medical professionals. Fat people's symptoms are all attributed to weight. My own stomach stapling was given the green light when I was just 17, with the dangers seen as less important than skinniness.
It is also a treadmill that is hard to jump off. Ozempic & Co. are long-term medications to take under regular medical supervision. That means even more additional cost. There is also the fear that the worst could happen if you stop taking the drugs — the ominous specter of regaining those 14 pounds.
The cost of marketing these medications for weight loss is not just monetary. It's that once again, it prioritizes body size over body health, and that it feeds our society's fatphobia.
Lori Falce is a Tribune-Review community engagement editor. You can contact Lori at lfalce@triblive.com.
