AFTER months of careful research, Jennifer Dootson started weight loss injections, hoping to end two decades of yo-yo dieting.
A year on, her weight has dropped from almost 14st to 10st 7lbs, and she says she has a far healthier relationship with food.
Jennifer Dootson, 39, lost over 3st on ‘fat jab’ Mounjaro – but is now awaiting surgery for gallstones[/caption]
Jennifer, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, ate just 400 calories a day on weight loss jabs[/caption]
But being slimmer has come at a painful price.
The mum-of-one is now on the waiting list for surgery to remove her gallbladder, which is full of excruciating ‘gravel’ – one of the listed possible side effects of Mounjauro.
Without surgery, she could suffer dangerous complications such as pancreatitis, which can be life-threatening unless treated.
Last month, The Sun revealed that there have been 82 deaths linked to weight loss jabs. It is estimated that half a million Brits now take them, with the total expected to double in a year.
Last November, 118 people were hospitalised due to side effects from the jabs.
The Independent Pharmacies Association is calling for tighter restrictions, including mandatory face-to-face appointments to combat people being dishonest about their weight or using proxies to get a prescription.
While Jennifer, 39, was on the jabs, she ate just 400 calories a day – one-fifth of the recommended daily amount for women – and suffered from extreme dizziness.
She also lost huge amounts of hair.
Although she doesn’t regret her decision because she has lost weight and reset her relationship with food, Jennifer, an organisational psychologist, says they should not be seen as an “easy fix”.
“I want women to learn from my experience,” says Jennifer, who lives in Stockport with her husband Ali, 49, who works in AI technology, and their 11-year-old daughter.
“They aren’t a magic bullet for weight loss. With a BMI of over 30, I qualified for the injections and they still caused problems.
“I worry they will fuel disordered eating. At one stage while taking the jabs I was living on 400 calories a day – I simply wasn’t hungry.
“I would often feel dizzy when I stood up. That isn’t healthy.
“But I’ve managed to lose weight with the jabs and I no longer think about food constantly, which is why I don’t regret taking them.”
Like many women, Jennifer struggled with her weight for years, fluctuating between 10st 2lb and 13st 10lb.
“It’s very hard to shift the narrative from the nineties and early noughties – that to be successful, you have to be thin,” she says.
“I have a happy marriage, a gorgeous daughter and a successful career, and yet for years, I felt like a failure because I wasn’t a size 10.
“Whatever success I’d achieved and however supportive Ali was about how I looked, I judged myself by my weight.”
Jennifer’s longing to be thin began when she started secondary school.
Jennifer ended up in hospital again in January due to being in agony after passing another gallstone[/caption]
Mounjaro is one form of weight loss jab being used in the UK[/caption]
Despite the side effects she says that the jabs have helped improve her relationship with food[/caption]
“My best friend was very slim and I wanted to be like her. We were constantly bombarded by images of successful, slender women like Britney Spears, flashing her toned tummy in crop tops,” she says.
“I wasn’t even fat – I just wasn’t stick-thin.”
Jennifer tried the Atkins, paleo and keto diets, with mixed results.
Just two weeks after giving birth in 2013, she joined Slimming World, desperate to lose the 2st she’d gained during pregnancy.
“I’d usually do around six months, then gradually I’d stop being so careful and the weight would creep back on – it was an endless cycle,” she says.
In 2023 Jennifer began looking into weight loss injections after reading success stories online.
She spent over 50 hours researching clinical trial data before deciding on Mounjauro, which cost around £160 a month.
Everything you need to know about fat jabs
Weight loss jabs are a hot media topic at the moment, with hundreds of success stories from people who shed the pounds.
In March 2023, the NHS announced it would make Wegovy, a drug made by Danish firm Novo Nordisk, available on prescription to thousands of obese Brits.
It contains the drug semaglutide, which is said to have helped reality star Kim Kardashian and X boss Elon Musk lose weight.
Wegovy, which helped a third of people reduce their weight by 20 per cent in trials, is now available from pharmacies like Boots.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less and therefore lose weight.
To do this, semaglutide mimics the role of a natural hormone, called GLP-1.
GLP-1 is part of the signalling pathway that tells your body you have eaten, and prepares it to use the energy that comes from your food.
London GP and founder of wellgoodwellbeing.com, Dr Zoe Watson, said: “Your body naturally produces an appetite regulating hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1.
“These jabs work by regulating your appetite, which can lead to eating fewer calories and losing weight.”
Aren’t they diabetes drugs?
Semaglutide, the active drug in Wegovy, was originally sold under the name Ozempic specifically for diabetes patients.
But people started noticing it helped suppress their appetites, stopping them eating as much and helping them shed the pounds.
Novo Nordisk then developed Wegovy, which contains the same chemical but at higher doses specifically to aid weight loss.
Wegovy is not prescribed for diabetes patients.
Can I get them?
Wegovy is offered on prescription to obese adults given specialist weight loss treatment.
The NHS currently also offers a similar drug called Saxenda, or liraglutide.
Both are only available throught specialist weight management services, which means you have to be referred to clinics led by experts.
GPs can’t prescribe them on their own, Dr Watson said.
The jabs have to be taken as part of an overall programme to help with lifestyle changes and psychological support to get the best effect from the medication prescribed.
Are there any risks?
Like all medicines, the jabs do not come without side effects.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
What other options are there?
Mounjaro (brand name for tirzepatide) also came onto the market in early 2024.
Like Wegovy, tirzepatide stems from a drug originally designed to treat diabetes.
The weekly injection helped overweight people drop more than two stone in 18 months.
It is available to order with a prescription online from pharmacies including Superdrug and Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor.
It works in a similar way to Wegovy and Saxenda but is more effective.
Dr Mitra Dutt from LloydsPharmacy says: “Based on clinical trials, 96 per cent of people were able to lose more than five per cent of their body fat using Mounjaro. In similar trials, 84 per cent of people lost more than five per cent of their body weight on Wegovy, and 60 per cent on Saxenda.
“Mounjaro works by activating two hormonal receptors (GIP and GLP-1), which enhance insulin production, improve insulin sensitivity, and work to decrease food intake.”
In March 2024, weighing 13st 9lb, and after completing an eligibility form and submitting photos of herself, Jennifer was prescribed Mounjaro by an online doctor.
At first, she reacted well to the weekly jabs.
“I didn’t have any side effects and lost 4lbs in the first week,” she says.
“I’d have a protein shake for breakfast, a handful of lentil crisps for lunch and then a family dinner of something like chilli or chicken and rice.
“But I’d only manage a few mouthfuls as I’d feel so full.”
There should definitely be more monitoring around how quickly you lose weight on the injections.
Two months after starting the jabs, Jennifer had her first attack of gallstones – hardened deposits of bile that form in the gallbladder and can range in size from small grains of sand to golf balls.
“We were on holiday in Jamaica and I suddenly got an agonising stomach pain,” she recalls.
“It was worse than childbirth and lasted around seven hours.
“I put it down to food poisoning and made no connection with the weight loss jabs.”
Gallstones are small stones that form in the gallbladder, which are made up of cholesterol.
Back home, Jennifer’s rapid weight loss continued.
“I went to the doctor about something different around five months in, and she told me I’d lost 25 per cent of my body weight,” she says.
“She didn’t raise any concerns that it was happening too fast and when I said to a nurse that it might be, she answered: ‘Yeah, but you look great’.
“There were even days when I’d worry I’d eaten too much because I wasn’t feeling dizzy. That had become my normal, which is obviously concerning.
“There should definitely be more monitoring around how quickly you lose weight on the injections.”
Jennifer lives in Stockport with her husband Ali[/caption]
She says she often felt dizzy while only consuming 400 calories a day[/caption]
In October, Jennifer was hit by a second bout of agonising stomach pain and saw a doctor.
By then she had lost over 3st, taking her from a size 16 to a 12. She was also suffering from severe hair loss.
“The doctor referred me for a scan and it transpired I had gallstones. There were so many it was as though my gallbladder was filled with gravel,” she says.
“I was told to come off the jabs immediately and that I’d need to have my gallbladder removed.
“I ended up in hospital again in January due to being in agony passing another gallstone.”
In clinical trials, about one in 200 Mounjaro users developed acute gallbladder disease, which refers to gallstones or inflammation of the gallbladder.
‘Listen to my body’
It can be a complication of rapid weight loss, which can lead to changes in bile composition and gallbladder function.
Jennifer was 10st 7lbs and had been on the jabs for eight months when she stopped.
Now a size 12 and with a BMI of just over 25, she is still classed as being in the overweight category for her 5ft 4ins height.
But she says her relationship with food has improved and she now goes to the gym regularly.
“I listen to my body and I stop eating when I’m full,” she explains.
“I probably eat about a third as much as I did before – around 1300 calories a day.
“It is the hair loss that would put me off using weight loss jabs again, not the gallbladder issues.”
Jennifer is conscious of setting a good example for her daughter but says it isn’t easy when so many women still aspire to be thin.
“We’ve always been very careful not to label food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or give her ‘treats’ as a reward,” she says.
“But there’s only so far my influence can stretch. Women are risking their health by taking weight loss jabs, even when they don’t qualify.
“I understand only too well why – but I wish I didn’t.”
What are gallstones?
Having gallstones is very common, and they affect around one in 10 adults in the UK.
However, while they normally don’t cause any symptoms, if they get inflamed or infected, they can cause further health problems.
Inflammation of the gallbladder is called acute cholecystitis and usually develops because a gallstone has obstructed the cystic duct.
