Weight loss drugs and their less known side effects on relationships

When Jeanne began to seriously consider taking Zepbound, one of the new generation weight loss drugs, she was the shortest conversation with her husband, Javier. They were in their room at the time, dressing and brushing their teeth in a hurry during this compressed morning interval before their 12 -year -old son leaves for the school and that Jeanne’s working day begins. The exchange was not so much a discussion as routine transport of domestic data, as well as the Costco purchasing list.

“I would like to try this,” Jeanne told Javier.

“Okay,” said Javier.

For Jeanne and Javier, the decision was easy. Jeanne, who is 53, has fought with her weight since the fifth year, and the blood tests of a recent physical examination indicated the worsening of foie gras. “It was the catalyst,” said Javier, standing in the large kitchen of their comfortable house in New England, where, through an image window, an empty hammock swayed wildly in the free wind of January . Since her study nearby, Jeanne has been audible at a conference call. At the time of their decision, at the end of 2023, the effects of the medication were always conceptual and Javier’s perspective was simple. He was “everything in it,” he said. Javier, who is also 53, considers himself a “half -complete” person, with a deep desire to be useful to others and constant support for his wife. “It has never come to mind to ask, well, what does it mean to We? “”

Jeanne took her first dose of Zepbound on March 7, 2024. Since then, she has lost 60 pounds; A recent liver scintigraphy has shown no signs of illness. Jeanne now uses words like “who change life” and “miraculous” to describe the results. But neither Jeanne nor Javier (who asked to use their first names to protect their intimacy) could have predicted the upheaval that her use of the drug would create in their 15 -year marriage – a disturbance which has not only radically changed its weight And its appetites but has also apparently forced a total renegotiation of their marital terms. They are struggling, minute per minute, with a review of what they love with each other, how they feel when they look in the mirror, which excites them. They haven’t had sex since she started Zepbound.

Javier appears disconcerted by changes in his wife. He is in mourning, he says, the loss of the woman he married, starting with his physical self. “I loved to feel his body, his big body, next to me in bed, the sweetness of it. The additional belly and the additional loot were comforting and reassuring, ”he says. “I miss it. Voluptuousness, being able to lean next to it and feel it, for lack of a better word, drapeting on me or on me. It is no longer an option.

Before prescribing these drugs, responsible clinicians will advise patients with well -known side effects – diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, headache – as well as the need for modifications to food and exercise. They will explain the dose calendar and could discuss costs. It is, more or less, where professional advice ends. But the effects of extreme weight loss on romantic relationships can be deep. The first and most important research on the subject dates back to 2018, when a team of Swedish epidemiologists published a study of the impact of bariatric surgery on marriage. After surgery, they found that married couples were more likely than those of a control group to divorce or separate, while singles were more likely to get married. Among couples, “there is such a desire to keep things the same,” explains Robyn Pashby, a clinical psychologist specializing in problems related to weight loss or gain. “When a person changes, they change the system. This breaks this tacit contract. »»