The ‘life-changing’ drugs being used by thousands of people in Wales every day

Many people have heaped praise on so-called skinny jabs, but questions over how they are being prescribed and long-term risks remain

Thousands of people across Wales are now turning to a quick-to-access weight-loss drug which appears to have the potential to transform people’s lives for the better, but experts are concerned about how they are being prescribed and questions remain about long-term risks.

Weight loss injections like GLP-1 receptor agonist, better known as the likes of Mounjaro or Wegovy, are becoming extremely common. Pharmacists are becoming inundated with people hoping for quick-fix weight loss routes and doctors are having constant conversations about the injections, while the Welsh Government and NICE predict more than 180,000 particularly vulnerable people in Wales could be eligible for Mounjaro through the NHS.

An estimated 1.5 million people in the UK use these drugs – but more than nine in 10 are believed to pay privately. It comes at a time where around a third of adults in Wales are obese while the NHS is under unprecedented pressure. For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter

We’ve spoken to people on Mounjaro in Wales who say it’s changed their lives, a doctor who has urged caution when buying drugs such as Mounjaro privately, and the owner of a pharmacy who has explained the incredible numbers of people now turning up to their local chemists willing to pay big money for the jabs.

Some of those who have taken the injections have called it “life-changing”, which is the case for Ryan Kerrison, from Pembrokeshire, who has lost eight and a half stone while on Mounjaro. The 28-year-old hairdresser from Haverfordwest started his weight loss journey in January when he weighed 19 stone and five pounds.

Speaking to WalesOnline about Mounjaro, Mr Kerrison said: “When I was in the salon I kept getting sort of dizzy spells so I went to the doctor and they told me I was pre-diabetic. Diabetes does run in my family so I don’t know whether it could be a bit of a genetic thing as well but obviously the weight definitely wasn’t helping.

“The doctor told me just before Christmas so you can imagine how that made me feel. But I thought: ‘You know what? I’m not going to let that ruin my Christmas. I’m going to get Christmas out of the way, enjoy it and then do something about it in January.'”

Inspired by his friend who had been taking Mounjaro to lose weight, he sought advice from his doctor who thought it would a be good idea and he took the plunge and ordered the prescription privately through a regulated online pharmacy.

He recalled: “I know everyone’s different and the journeys are different, but I thought: ‘Do you know what? It’s my health here. I need to just do something.’ Because of my busy lifestyle being a hairdresser, it was just like I was always blaming my job on my laziness really. Not being able to exercise because I’m working ten hours in the salon, not being able to eat well because I don’t have a lunch break. Just making excuses for everything I was doing in life really. So I started using Mounjaro then in January, and I’ve been off it now for about eight weeks, and altogether I have lost eight and a half stone.”

The 28-year-old stressed that his lifestyle had completely changed including his attitude to fitness and his diet. He now goes to the gym four times a week, drinks three to four litres of water a day, and says Mounjaro has completely changed his life. He used to be a self-professed “massive party animal” but has since taken a step back from going out drinking every weekend and he barely drinks alcohol anymore. He said that is why he felt comfortable to come off the drug.

He said: “I think there’s a lot of stigma around people saying: ‘Oh, when you come off it, you’ll pile it back on.’ I can happily say I’ve not put a single pound on, and I’ve been off it for eight weeks.”

Side effects have been known to include gastrointestinal issues like nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, constipation, and indigestion, although Mr Kerrison said he’s been fortunate to have no side effects from the drug either aside from the occasional sore stomach. “My energy levels have been much higher,” he said. “I’m more positive in life in general. So yes, if anything, it has changed my life for the better.”

The hairdresser has documented his weight loss journey on social media and said that whilst looking back at old videos where he started losing weight he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “When I was going through it, I was going through like a bit of body dysmorphia,” he remembered. “I was looking at myself in the mirror and I was like: ‘Oh, do you know what? I’m not even changing.’ But sometimes it’s not the numbers on the scales that matter.

“Just walking into a clothes shop, and like before I’d have to try everything on because I wasn’t sure whether it would look right, wouldn’t fit right, and I’d be all over the place with different sizing because of my weight. But now I can literally walk into the shop and pick a t-shirt up. I’ve gone from a size double XL to a small on bottom and a medium on top. So even little things like that, you know, it’s really nice to just be able to just walk around and feel confident in yourself and not feel like everyone’s looking at you because you’re big.”

The Labour MP for Neath and Swansea east Carolyn Harris has also been using Mounjaro. The 65-year-old said she has always struggled with her weight, but after years of online abuse from trolls on social media she decided to purchase the weight loss injection privately.

After speaking to her menopause doctor about the injection she decided in October last year: “I’m going to give this a go.” She recalled: “I got to a point where I was taking so much abuse for how I looked and my weight always came into it. I thought maybe I can neutralise the abuse if I’m not fat anymore and so that was the driving force I think.”

The MP has since come off X (formerly known as Twitter) and has turned her comments off on Facebook, saying they “were just absolutely horrendous, and I think it’s worse if you’re a woman”.

After starting the drug in October last year in 14 months Carolyn has lost nine stone and has said that the injection has changed her life. “I’m physically fitter, I have more energy, and I think better, which sounds weird, but I do, because I don’t get tired so easily,” she told of her new life.

“I used to get a lot of aches and pains and I don’t get the aches and pains now. If I had to walk for long distances, I’d be filled with dread. It’s little things like doing the buckle up for shoes or doing your laces up on shoes. That was not a struggle, but it was a task, now it’s not. I mean things that I just take for granted now, I struggled with before.”

She hopes that by sharing her weight loss story and being open about her use of Mounjaro it will inspire others to take their health into their own hands and “feel that they can do it”. She added: “Because it’s not the easy way out, it isn’t. Because even though you don’t have the same appetite, you could choose to eat the wrong thing with the bit of appetite you have got and you’re not going to lose weight. You could decide: ‘I’m not going to do any exercise.’ It’s hard work. It’s not easy.”

After reaching her goal, which was to be a size 16, she has decided to start reducing her dosage of the medication with the hopes of being off it by spring next year.

“When I started on this journey I was talking to the private doctor who I’ve kept in touch with on a weekly basis, and she said: ‘What’s the ideal position for you? What’s the ideal weight?’ And I said: ‘I haven’t got an ideal weight because I want to be able to go into a size 16. If I can wear a size 16 then I will be happy.'”

Carolyn went on to lose more weight than her goal, leading her to drop from a size 24 to a size 10/12. She said she can’t believe the difference the drug has made and said she is often shocked when seeing photos of herself now. She told us: “I’ll send them to a friend and say: ‘Can you believe that’s me? That’s me. I can’t believe that’s me.’

“You do change how you feel about yourself, definitely. I mean, yes, I feel younger. Somebody said to me I look 15 to 20 years younger and I feel it, I feel completely different. I think there’s a lot of people who know me, and will look at me and not realise it’s me and then they double take, it’s such a lovely feeling.

“I want other people, I’m thinking about women especially, but men and women who have always been like me, to suddenly realise that you can feel and look so much better health wise. I must have been pre-diabetic, I must have been a candidate for heart disease and a stroke because I wasn’t doing any exercise. Now I eat healthily and I’ve got an exercise regime.

“When I walked into a room I would always feel like: ‘Please don’t look at me. I’m the short fat one in the corner.’ Now I don’t feel like that at all. Now I feel as if I’m everyone’s equal and not someone that people should feel sorry for.”

Although NICE has approved the use of Mounjaro for weight loss, Wales is introducing it more gradually, therefore it can’t currently be prescribed by GPs on the NHS. This meant that patients needed a GP referral to specialist tier 3 weight-management services for severe obesity (BMI over 45, or over 40 with certain conditions) to obtain the drug in Wales.

But in October the Welsh Government announced that in addition to the previous criteria, people who are waiting for time-sensitive surgery or organ transplants, women seeking fertility treatment, and people with conditions such as severe asthma, severe obstructive sleep apnoea, or cancer where weight loss would improve treatment outcomes or access to therapies will have access to the weight-loss drug through the NHS.

Health minister Jeremy Miles said: “There is considerable demand for specialist weight management services and growing pressure for access to these medications through the NHS. To help meet demand in a sustainable way we are building capacity and capability while ensuring people with the most urgent clinical need can access treatment without delay. This approach recognises that some people need access now.”

Speaking on behalf of the British Medical Association (BMA), Dr Gareth Oelmann said a balance clearly needs to be struck. He told us: “GLP-1 weight loss injections, and Mounjaro is just one of them, is a promising development for obesity management. But safe prescribing, clear commissioning and robust patient safeguards must come as part and parcel of that wider roll out. So we as the BMA and GPC Wales (General Practice Committee in Wales) continue to press the Welsh Government for action that ensures equitable access to the drugs without compromising patient safety or overburdening general practice without appropriate resources that follow.”

Much like Ryan and Carolyn, many members of the Welsh population are seeking the drug privately and opting to go online for their prescriptions as they don’t fall under the Welsh Government’s criteria. It is thought the number of people doing this could be in the tens of thousands. Dr Oelmann stressed his concerns over online prescription sales.

He said: “Sometimes selling gives that impression of: ‘I’m just going onto Amazon and I’m just buying it.’ This comes down to the crux of the question about regulation and because these medications are being prescribed and dispensed. They do come under the guidance of the GMC and the general pharmaceutical council with regards to the regulation and the guidance.

“We know that there is an increase in the private prescribing and online sales and online dispensing, but each of those organisations does have guidance and regulation that should require the prescriber to verify the patient’s body mass index, the medical history, even clinical examination where appropriate before prescribing.

“We are aware that this doesn’t always happen, and on behalf of GPs in Wales I’m constantly in communication with the chief pharmaceutical officer in turn with the general pharmaceutical council raising these concerns where practices might not be entirely appropriate or adequate.”

When asked if people were doing enough research before buying the drug online, Dr Oelmann said: “Because of the cost of the medication some people may shop around and look for the cheapest available option and that’s not necessarily the organisation that has the most robust governance behind it. It is important that patients do appropriate research before entering into such an arrangement.”

He added that we don’t yet know the long term impact of the drug, however “we certainly know that there are short-term risks and short-term side effects”. “It is clear that long-term safety and sustainability does remain under review, but we certainly also have to recognise the long-term consequences upon health of obesity, and there becomes a risk to benefit balance evaluation that needs to be done. There’s no doubt that there is significant potential for patients with obesity and other comorbidities, and I suppose to a certain extent there are limitations that need to be clarified.”

The Welsh Government said: “There is considerable demand for weight management medicines and growing pressure for access through the NHS. To help meet demand in a sustainable way we are undertaking work to develop a new model that considers access across settings and wrap around support to help and sustain weight loss. We have also put in place new arrangements for people with the most urgent clinical need to access the weight management medicines while arrangements for wider access are considered.”

To understand the sheer volume of people trying to access the drug now, just speak to your local pharmacist. Pharmacist and owner of Cyncoed Pharmacy Nick Thorne runs a weight loss clinic in Cardiff which has hundreds of patients who are using the injections to lose weight. Many of these patients have had positive experiences on Mounjaro with some having lost up to eight stone, he said. He believes the weight loss injections have become more prevalent due to the obesity crisis, saying: “There’s been nothing like this before. There’s been nothing this safe before.”

He told us: “I’ve been running this now for two years. I would say in the last year we’ve seen the biggest spike, and what you find is that we’ll get a few new customers and then they lose the weight, and then all their friends, family or colleagues will see what they’ve done or find out what they’re doing, where they’re getting it from, and then all of a sudden one person becomes 10.”

The pharmacist shared that many people are having a similar experience to Carolyn, where they are completely relieved of any pre-existing joint pain thanks to losing weight. He said: “A lot of people are coming in where they’re waiting for an operation for a joint and they’re not allowed to have it until they’ve lost weight, and then they find the relief is massive.

“I’ve had people coming off antidepressants, coming off blood pressure medication, coming off type two diabetes medication, massive success stories. It’s a profound effect on people’s lives.

“We should look at Mounjaro positively but not uncritically. It’s one of the most effective tools we’ve had for tackling obesity which is a serious, chronic medical condition. For the right patients it can be genuinely life-changing.”

But, like Dr Oelmann, he urged caution. Mr Thorne added: “It’s not a shortcut or a cosmetic drug and it must be prescribed responsibly. Careful assessment, proper monitoring, and ongoing support are essential. The focus should always be long-term health, not rapid weight loss at any cost.

“While we have strong evidence that drugs like Mounjaro are effective and generally safe in the medium term, we don’t yet have decades of real-world data. However, drugs of this kind have been on the market for many years now. I believe the first of their kind became available in the US as long ago as 2005, so they are not as new as some people may think.

“What we do know is that obesity itself carries well-established long-term risks including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, joint problems, and those risks are not theoretical. Prescribing is always about weighing known risks against known benefits, and doing that on an individual patient basis. That’s why long-term monitoring and follow-up matter.”

When it comes to online services offering Mounjaro, Nick said he was concerned that they aren’t regulated enough. He said: “If it’s a high street pharmacy chain, that’s absolutely fine because they’re heavily regulated. What these other clinics are doing, I’ve no idea what their regulation is like and where they get their stock from. I have heard some horror stories out there, how true they are I don’t know.

“We do need tighter regulation. These medicines are powerful prescription drugs, not lifestyle products. When they’re sold online without proper medical assessment, follow-up, or safeguarding, patient safety is put at risk. Weight-loss injections should only be prescribed after a full clinical assessment, with ongoing monitoring for side effects and nutritional issues. Convenience should never override safety.”

The pharmacist has urged that those looking to seek weight loss injections need to do thorough research to ensure they are doing so safely. He explained: “In many cases, people don’t fully research it — and that’s understandable. Social media and celebrity stories tend to focus on dramatic weight loss, not side effects, nutritional risks, or the commitment involved. Part of my role is to slow that process down: to explain what the drug does, what it doesn’t do, and whether it’s actually appropriate for that person. When patients are properly informed and supported, outcomes are much better.”