The GLP-1 Gender Gap: Why Are Men Being Left Out?
Men and women develop obesity at similar rates, but women are far more likely to be prescribed and to use the newer GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs, and the gap is widening, recent research suggested.
A study examining the impact of the FDA’s 2021 approval of semaglutide(Wegovy) for chronic weight management on the GLP-1 usage gap between men and women in the US found similar utilization rates between the sexes prior to the approval. However, approval “was associated with a sharp increase in GLP-1 utilization…, widening sex-based differences, with female utilization significantly surpassing that of males” in subsequent years, the authors concluded.
In addition, an analysis of US prescribing data from 2020 to 2024 showed that about 3% of eligible women received semaglutide or tirzepatide for obesitycompared to 1.2% of eligible men.
Excerpted from Medscape
