GLP-1 medications are more popular than ever, as science continues to discover new ways they can be used to address a variety of health conditions—from managing type 2 diabetes and obesity to reducing addictive behaviors and even lowering your dementia risk. One exciting and developing finding is that GLP-1s can improve fertility in certain women, particularly those struggling with overweight or obesity, or who have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). GLP-1 medications can actually increase some women’s chances of getting pregnant.
But because GLP-1 medications—including semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound)—are relatively new and research is ongoing, experts advise against using them during pregnancy.
So if you’ve been taking a GLP-1 to lose weight, control your blood sugar, or increase your odds of having a baby, then you might have to hit pause at some point. The good news is that with the right planning, it’s possible to balance both your personal health goals and your pregnancy.
How GLP-1s impact fertility
Research shows that having high blood sugar and excess fat in the body—even if you don’t have type 2 diabetes—can affect whether you ovulate every month, Christina Boots, MD, a board-certified ob-gyn at Northwestern Medicine who specializes in reproductive endocrinology, tells SELF. “There’s some data to suggest that up to a third of women with a really high BMI don’t ovulate regularly, or they start to become irregular,” she says. Meanwhile, people with PCOS tend to have elevated levels of testosterone, which can affect the egg follicles in your ovaries, increase insulin resistance, and encourage fat storage—all of which can throw off your ovulation.
So in controlling blood sugar and reducing fat in the body, GLP-1 medications “can make ovulation more predictable, which means that people then may get pregnant sooner than expected,” says Kimberly Sampson-Paine, MD, a double board-certified ob-gyn and obesity medicine specialist at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.
This isn’t unique to GLP-1 medications. Taking a medication like metformin, which improves insulin sensitivity regardless of weight loss, can help some women with PCOS ovulate regularly. But the big advantage of GLP-1s is that they not only help with insulin sensitivity (thereby lowering blood sugar), but they support weight loss too.
“They’re like super-sized treatment options,” says Dr. Boots. They’re also impactful because some IVF clinics have BMI restrictions, often because providers can’t safely do IVF or put patients to sleep for egg retrieval if their BMI is over 45. GLP-1s can help patients who are overweight or obese reach a weight that allows them to access these effective reproductive technologies too.
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