If you’re anything like me, you probably know a handful of people on a GLP-1 weight-loss medication like Ozempic, Wegovy, or Zepbound. These drugs are so popular now that one in eight Americans is either taking a GLP-1 or has taken one in the past. You may even be included in this group.
While there has been a lot of research into how people are responding to these drugs, the focus has mostly been on weight-loss and side effects, not how the intimate lives of people on GLP-1s may be impacted. But a new study led by the Kinsey Institute in partnership with DatingAdvice.com looked at how these drugs are changing people’s dating and sex lives.
Although the category of drug known as GLP-1s has made weight-loss, often associated with increased health outcomes, relatively easier for many people, the resulting body and side effects, which include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation, don’t always equate to better relationships. In fact, daters on GLP-1s are almost as likely to have more negative experiences with dating and sex as positive ones. These findings suggest “health” is not always synonymous with a smaller body—and that a smaller body does not inherently improve your love life.
Dating dynamics
As a sex and dating coach, I’ve worked with several clients who felt that their weight was a barrier to them meeting potential partners. And it’s true that overweight and obese people are chronically discriminated against in the dating world. It is interesting then to see that 9% of respondents to the Kinsey survey stated that they felt less confident in dating while taking a GLP-1, while only slightly more (11%) said they felt more confident. One would think that if you remove weight stigma from the equation, daters would feel overwhelmingly more positive about their prospects, but these findings point to something more nuanced.
Weight stigma expert and host of the new podcast, GLP-1 Truth Serum, Virgie Tovar, believes that there’s a deeper, relational layer to explore. She explains that “For some people, their weight-loss may, in fact, decrease how much weight stigma they’re experiencing, yielding a reality where their dating options have increased in volume because now their dating pool includes the fatphobes who wouldn’t date them before,” she says.
However, Tovar points out that daters who have lost weight may find themselves “dating a fatphobe now.”
“The data indicates that once [daters] go off the medication they are likely to experience weight rebound,” she explains. “So, what might feel like a permanent one-way street out of experiencing weight stigma in dating may, in fact, be a temporary one.”
It could be that for some daters who have lost weight on GLP-1s, the benefits of being perceived as no longer fat are enough to boost their confidence, while others struggle with the meaning behind this new treatment in the dating world.
Cravings, desires, and side effects
In the Kindsey study, 18% of respondents said that their sexual desire increased on GLP-1s while 16% said it decreased. Additionally, 16% of respondents said that their sexual function improved, while 12% said it worsened. Why might GLP-1 users be almost equally likely to experience worse sex and lack of desire as better sex and increased desire?
One piece of the answer is how GLP-1s work. In essence, GLP-1s change a person’s relationship to their desires. GLP-1s can lead to weight loss by suppressing appetite for food, but they also change the foods people crave. People on GLP-1s tend to consume fewer sweet, salty, fatty, or savory foods. In fact, GLP1-s are shifting cravings—and as a result, shopping habits—so much that they have actually impacted the sales of these food categories.
Further proof that GLP-1s are changing people’s relationship to cravings is that these medications have even been shown to curb desires for things like nicotine, alcohol, and opioids. Though research on this subject is still ongoing, sex may be one of the things that people on GLP-1s no longer feel compelled toward.
And then, there are the digestive side effects, which have been shown to impact sexual desire anecdotally, as well as speculated by the researchers behind the Kinsey study.
Finally, research suggests that GLP-1s can interfere with sex hormones, which could be why some people see negative changes to sexual functioning.
On the flip side, those who experience more desire for and better sex could be experiencing fewer physical side effects, or they may engage in behaviors that inherently make sex better for them.
“I’ll speak from experience as a plus-size woman who experienced a lot of weight stigma growing up and who used to pursue weight-loss aggressively.” Tovar explains, “When I lost weight, I felt like I looked better so I took more romantic risks. Were the rewards I reaped due to my weight-loss, my risk-taking or some combination of both? Because I felt I looked better, I was willing to sexually experiment more with my partners. So, my sex life was better. Was my sex life better because I’d lost weight or because I felt more confident and experimented more?”
Those who see positive effects in their sex lives while taking GLP-1s could be experiencing something similar to what Tovar describes: the ability to feel more sexually empowered by a combination of seeing oneself as more desirable and the ability to have the kind of sex you really want–not just the sex you’re lucky enough to have.
The side effects of taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss don’t just include physical symptoms, but also social and romantic ones. This new data is just the beginning of research needed to further understand how people’s lives change—for better or worse—while on GLP-1s.
But the Kinsey Institute’s preliminary findings show that there isn’t a straight line from weight loss to better romantic experiences for everyone.
In fact, daters taking GLP-1s may find that while there are advantages to weight loss, one can also lose their appetite for intimacy.