The use of weight loss treatments like Ozempic and Wegovy has in the Western world. But as more people turn to these treatments, which mimic the appetite-suppressing hormone GLP-1, more potential side effects are emerging, including hair loss.
Evidence of this first appeared during . Of the more than 2100 adult participants taking the drug, 3 per cent experienced hair loss, compared with only 1 per cent of the roughly 1200 participants taking a placebo. A similar effect was seen in aged 12 to 17 years old: among the 133 of them who were taking the drug, 4 per cent developed hair loss, whereas none of the 67 children or teenagers in the placebo group听did.
To learn more, at the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues looked at a larger group of people. They used electronic records to collect health data spanning from 2006 to 2020 on more than 3200 adults in the US, of whom 1926 were prescribed semaglutide 鈥� the GLP-1 drug in Ozempic and Wegovy 鈥� and 1348 were given an obesity medication called bupropion-naltrexone.
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None of the participants had diabetes, which suggests that those using semaglutide, which can be prescribed for obesity or type 2 diabetes, were taking it for weight loss, says Sodhi. The researchers tracked which participants were later diagnosed with any form of hair loss for the first time.
After accounting for variables such as age, sex, location and any underlying health conditions, they found that those prescribed semaglutide were 52 per cent more likely, on average, than those taking bupropion-naltrexone.
However, when stratifying the results to compare men against women,听the team found that women were almost exclusively driving the association. Overall, the 1026 women taking semaglutide were more than twice as likely to experience hair loss as the 1097 women using bupropion-naltrexone. Only one man was newly diagnosed with hair loss in each treatment group, out of the 1151 men in the study.
This might reflect a genuine difference between men and women, but it is also possible that there were too few men to capture an association, says Sodhi. Alternatively, men are more likely to experience balding and hair loss than women, so they may be less likely to seek a diagnosis for it, he says.听
It also isn鈥檛 clear whether semaglutide or another factor is responsible for participants鈥� hair loss. 鈥淭here are so many things that can affect hair,鈥� says at New York University鈥檚 Langone Health medical centre. These include stress and sleep quality, which weren鈥檛 accounted for in the analysis, she says.
听and are also associated with weight gain, and seeing that semaglutide appears to obesity than bupropion-naltrexone, it may be more likely to be prescribed for severe obesity. This could create the illusion that semaglutide has hair loss as a side effect, when it may actually be lifestyle factors driving both hair loss and severe obesity.
Another possibility is that semaglutide may trigger a form of hair loss called telogen effluvium. This occurs when a stressor, such as rapid weight loss, disrupts the hair growth cycle, causing active hair follicles to stop growing. Usually, growth resumes once the stressor has passed. Any intervention that produces rapid weight loss, such as bariatric surgery or extreme calorie restriction, can lead to telogen effluvium, says Jaisinghani. This could explain why semaglutide is associated with a compared with less effective weight-loss drugs, says Sodhi.
In addition, while both and work by suppressing appetite, the former appears to do this more effectively. This could heighten the risk of nutrient deficiencies, says Sodhi. 鈥淚f someone is not getting enough nutrients, whether that is from extreme calorie cutting or not getting enough protein or following an unbalanced diet, they could experience side effects or a reaction such as hair loss,鈥� says Jaisinghani. 鈥淭his is why it is really important to discuss safe and sustainable rates of weight loss with your doctor, and that is along with ensuring adequate protein intake and a well-balanced, nutrient-forward diet,鈥� she says.
While more research is needed to determine whether semaglutide directly contributes to hair loss, the studies to date add to our growing understanding of the potential side effects of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, which will help people and their doctors make informed choices around their use, says Sodhi.
鈥淪emaglutide鈥檚 efficacy and safety have been extensively demonstrated in people with obesity/overweight with robust evidence for improving health outcomes,鈥� says a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the maker of semaglutide. 鈥淣ovo Nordisk remains confident in the benefit-risk profile of our GLP-1 medicines, when used consistent[ly] with their indications and product labelling.鈥�
