Ozempic has already been linked to a host of bizarre bodily changes — including sagging skin and sunken-in cheeks.
But now women are reporting a side effect dubbed ‘Ozempic breasts’ — which is when their boobs either shrink or balloon in size.
Doctors say the former is to be expected because as someone loses weight, fat tissue in the breasts also diminish, making them smaller in size.
But the latter is more surprising to experts. One line of thinking is that hormonal fluctuations in the body cause temporary breast swelling or tenderness.
Oprah Winfrey previously admitted to using weight loss medications for her dramatic body transformation, after denying she would ever take weight loss meds. She is pictured above in 2019, left, and in December last year
The above shows Jessica Dennis, a mother-of-four currently in South Dakota, who said her breasts shrunk while on Ozempic
Another theory is that, as people become skinnier, their breasts simply appear bigger.
Still, dozens of women have been left feeling disappointed or pleasantly surprised due to the phenomenon.
Dr Andrew Peredo, a plastic surgeon in New York City, told DailyMail.com: ‘With Ozempic, what I have been noticing is a lot of people will take a high dose of the weight loss drug and then lose the weight really fast.
‘And when that happens, the skin doesn’t have time to retract and bounce back.
He added: ‘They will lose the weight everywhere, the breast will be totally deflated, the butt totally deflated, and they will lose weight in the face as well.’
Dr Smita Ramanadham, a plastic surgeon in New Jersey, added: ‘For our breasts, the majority of the tissue is actually fat and, in general, when you lose fat you lose that size in your breasts too.
‘I think what we have to remember is that any weight loss affects the whole body, and one person’s experience will likely be different from another’s. It is best to consult your doctor before using the medications.’
Both surgeons said it was also ‘plausible’ that fat loss could initially cause the breasts to swell, although they added this was likely to be ‘rare’.
Among those to report that their breasts shrunk after taking the miracle weight loss drugs was Jessica Kahn from Kansas City, Missouri.
She lost 70lbs over nine months while taking Ozempic’s sister medication Wegovy and was thrilled with the results — which meant she could get a breast reduction.
But while on the drugs, she also shared photos showing how her breasts had started to shrink as the weight came off.
‘I couldn’t be happier with my results and can’t wait to keep going,’ she said, ‘the side effects are brutal sometimes, but to me, it’s worth it in exchange for the confidence boost, the comfort I feel in my own skin, and the chance to finally get a breast reduction’.
And in a second case of breasts shrinking while on the drug, Jessica Brown, 47, from Kentucky, said that after losing just 40lbs on Ozempic made her breasts sag.
‘My breasts definitely got saggier,’ she told the Los Angeles Times.
There are also a number of cases reported online of people actually having their breasts enlarged while on the drugs.
Dr Jonathan Kaplan, a plastic surgeon in San Francisco
In one Reddit thread, a man told how his wife was becoming upset because she didn’t appear to be losing any weight while her breasts were getting larger and making her shirt tighter.
‘I feel bad for both of us because of the zero weight loss,’ he wrote, ‘but doubly bad for her for how upset she is about her chest and being so uncomfortable and insecure about her clothes even more now than usual.’
A second person replied to the post saying they were also experiencing this, saying: ‘I’m also experiencing this and I am 100,000 percent sure there’s no way I’m pregnant.
‘I think in my case it’s actually that I’m losing the fat on my sides so my boobs both look and feel bigger. It’s a situation where they’re not blurring into my side fat as much as they used to.’
One theory is that fat cells harbor the female sex hormone estrogen.
When someone starts losing weight, the cells then start to release this hormone — causing a spike in levels in the body.
This may then cause the breasts to swell because higher levels can cause them to hold more water or, like in the menstrual cycle, stimulate them to temporarily grow more breast tissue.
Another theory suggests that the weight loss patients experience helps to boost blood flow around the body including to areas like the breasts, causing them to increase in size.
Dr Jonathan Kaplan, a plastic surgeon in San Francisco, said in a TikTok video: ‘Any time you lose a large amount of weight through any means, your body is going to change.
‘It is going to be somewhat deflated because you are going to be losing fat. And as you lose fat, your skin becomes looser so the face and the breasts begin to sag.’
He added: ‘When it comes to the face, you can treat that with fillers or… a facelift.
‘But when it comes to the boobs, the filler is really not going to do the trick. We should just start thinking about a breast lift to remove excess skin and make it perkier again, or putting in breast implants to restore some volume.’
More than 5million Americans were estimated to be on a weight loss medication like Ozempic by the end of 2023, according to an analysis of electronic medical records by Epic Research.
And this number is only expected to surge with an estimated 42 percent of adults in the US said to be suffering from obesity.
Ozempic and many similar drugs are meant to be reserved for patients with type 2 diabetes, but they are often prescribed off-label by doctors for weight loss.
Its sister drug Wegovy, which also uses semaglutide, has been approved for weight loss in the US.