The dramatic results of weight-loss drugs often come with a side order of stigma, as though it’s ‘cheating’ not to stick to willpower, diet and exercise alone. Is that why so many are telling no one – not even their partners?
Every Friday night, Claire, a 50-year-old woman in Berkshire, waits until her husband and son have gone to bed. When she is sure the house is quiet, she tiptoes out to her garage, and over to a tin tucked away in the corner. It is chilly out there, but she doesn’t mind; that’s the point. Inside the tin, away from the prying eyes of her family, is a vial of the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro, which needs to be kept at about 8C. Claire has been taking it without them knowing for several months. “It would have been harder to get away with in summer,” she says.
As weight-loss medications have become more and more popular, lots of people in the public eye have been dramatically changing shape, walking the red carpets or hosting TV shows in bodies half the size they once were. But as the jabs have become cheaper and more readily available, so, too, have ordinary people been disappearing before our eyes. And many are choosing not to disclose just how this weight loss is happening. Like Claire, these “secret jabbers” are keeping it private even from their closest family and friends.
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