Texas Mother Shares Abilities Using Ozempic for 1 Year: ‘It be Extra Advanced Than People Realize’

Natasha Robinson has long struggled with excessive glucose, insulin and A1C ranges, which made her make weight and switch into extremely fatigued. For a lot of years, the 37-yr-extinct from Dallas became taking diabetes drug metformin nevertheless saw no progress. In affirm someone who works in greater education and has in-regulations who are pharmacists, Robinson took matters into her occupy hands and did research for better picks.

She eventually got here across Ozempic and urged it to her doctor.

Ozempic is an FDA-favorite prescription medication — taken by injection in the thigh, belly or arm — typically worn to support lower blood sugar in of us with Form 2 diabetes. It be the ticket name for semaglutide, which stimulates insulin manufacturing and additionally targets areas of the brain that adjust urge for meals, per the FDA.

With approval from her doctor, Robinson began taking Ozempic in January 2022 and is now opening as much as PEOPLE about the fact of taking the drug for the previous yr.

“I became a tiny bit nervous, to be finest, because I score no longer treasure needles. So the root of in level of fact giving myself an injection became moderately horrifying,” she tells PEOPLE. “However I started the medication to determine out to score my body to construct what it became supposed to be doing — properly use the insulin that my body became constructing.”

Natasha Robinson

Taking the medication became moderately the adjustment for Robinson. Early on, she dealt with a spread of nausea — a frequent facet attain of Ozempic. Alternatively, the facet results lessened because the months passed by.

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“The nausea became moderately rough before all the pieces,” she explains. “I continuously purchase my injection at evening, and by about noon the following day, I would initiate to feel in level of fact tired and nauseated. That could maybe final for maybe two days after which I would feel loads better and in level of fact score a tiny bit bit extra energy than I had prior to.”

“Now, I’m going to maintain a tiny bit bouts of nausea, nevertheless it is absolutely nothing admire it became for that first month the save I would feel repeatedly nauseous for a spread of days,” she adds.

Robinson additionally noticed that, although the number on the scale wasn’t her challenge, she began shedding weight after about a month on the medication.

“I realized proper away that my cheekbones had been showing a tiny bit bit extra,” she explains. “One morning I in level of fact woke up and told my husband, ‘Elevate out I maintain bruises?’ On yarn of I had this tiny location that my cheeks had been showing and it looked admire tiny bruises. That became in level of fact my first indication that something became changing.”

Robinson’s alternate in her face will be the consequence of one other frequent facet attain, dubbed “Ozempic face,” the save the burden loss deflates key areas of the face and quantity is lost.

Natasha Robinson

By October, the mother of two dropped 52 lbs. and her effectively being had improved critically in the areas her doctor hoped.

“My blood work in level of fact shows a fundamental shift in markers for inflammation and my insulin and glucose,” she says, noting that she has loads extra energy. “I feel so loads better than I did and I correct didn’t stamp how hard life became turning into prior to.”

Despite the progress alongside with her effectively being, there is one lingering element that worries Robinson: the worth of Ozempic.

Robinson is as we affirm spending $24.99 month-to-month on Ozempic, which she says she has no area with. Alternatively, with out her month-to-month coupon, her prescription would ticket $175 month-to-month, and with out her insurance coverage coverage, she could maybe be spending over $1,000 month-to-month.

There are as we affirm no generic kinds of Ozempic and the frequent retail ticket with out insurance coverage can range from $1,205 to $1,368.

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Man getting attractive semaglutide Ozempic injection.
Getty

Robinson says she’s “stricken” of the possibility of no longer being ready to score her medication anymore as her insurance coverage company will quickly require a prior authorization for Ozempic — a challenge many others are additionally facing.

“It be a lifelong medication. Your body does now not correct all of sudden undergo in mind straightforward how to use insulin properly or straightforward how to turn out to be extra insulin sensitive. So I became fully expecting to be at a lower dose for my total life,” she says, noting that she’s already pondering of methods to score her medication if something happens.

“I would doubtlessly affirm it from Canada if my doctor had been attractive to write a prescription for me,” she admits. “On yarn of $250 or $300 is loads extra practical than $2,000, or no subject excessive amount it is with out the coverage.”

Robinson explains that although there are of us who maintain taken Ozempic due to the an online fad, she and a lot of others depend heavily on the medication.

“I mediate the extra that we focus on obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and PCOS, the extra of us learn that it isn’t any longer continuously that you’re being sluggish,” she says. “There would possibly be this misconception that you’re being sluggish whenever that you could maintain got effectively being considerations and you can not shed weight. However typically it is loads extra refined than of us stamp.”

Robinson, who has additionally been sharing her abilities on social media, tells PEOPLE it is well-known that her followers learn the selections readily obtainable for his or her scientific needs and feel chuffed constructing a thought with their doctors that will easiest enhance their effectively being.

She adds that no subject some misinformation that can attain from the latest developments titillating Ozempic, she’s overjoyed these conversations are being held because they’ll support other of us admire herself. Ozempic — and other equal injections admire Wegovy and Mounjaro — has nowadays been trending on social media and in Hollywood circles as some of us maintain worn it for weight reduction, even when no longer medically fundamental.

“Celebrities usually are now not in level of fact serving to things after they focus on on medicines that they took for a brief period of time or accidentally took — the misinformation is now not great — nevertheless the fact that we’re ready to maintain extra conversations about these medicines, I score no longer mediate that is a depraved element,” Robinson says.