Guidelines still advise stopping GLP-1 drugs one to two months before pregnancy
Women who keep taking GLP-1 drugs into early pregnancy face no clear increase in the risk of losing the pregnancy, a large new analysis found, an early signal of reassurance as the medications spread among women of working and reproductive age.
Researchers at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health cited by Reuters analyzed 3,572 pregnancies in women who were taking GLP-1 drugs before conception, including 1,467 in women with type 2 diabetes.
Women who continued the drugs into the first trimester faced a 29.7 percent risk of non-live birth, the team found, against 27.1 percent for those who stopped.
The gap, which held after adjusting for individual risk factors, was not statistically significant.
Continuing the drugs also did not appear to substantially increase the risks for low or high birth weight or major congenital malformations, the wire service reported, though the study noted those estimates were imprecise.
The accumulated evidence does not suggest GLP-1 drugs used after conception substantially raise the risk of common adverse outcomes, said Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, senior author of the report published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
She called that "reassuring," while noting it is as much as the data can show for now.
The findings matter because exposure often happens by accident.
GLP-1 drugs can improve fertility in some obese women through weight reduction and enhanced insulin sensitivity, Reuters reported, and the wire service said tirzepatide in particular can compromise the absorption of oral contraceptives, which can contribute to accidental pregnancy.
The medications include Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, sold as Zepbound and Mounjaro.
The reassurance does not change clinical advice.
Guidelines do not recommend GLP-1 use during pregnancy because the drugs' safety for the fetus remains unknown and animal studies have suggested potential risks, and they advise stopping at least one or two months before pregnancy.
Hernandez-Diaz said the study alone cannot change current recommendations, and that women who took the drugs before discovering their pregnancy need not panic.
The message stays the same, she said, for women "to follow the label and their clinicians' advice" on GLP-1 drugs.
