Who Have You Shared Your GLP-1 Use With?

Not one person knows, and I plan to keep it that way... though if someone else brings it up first, perhaps I would. Peptides come up in conversation often enough, and people get remarkably candid when they have no idea you're involved. Nobody around me would get it, and since I'm otherwise an open book, this stays my one private thing.
 
European said:

I’m wondering which people in your life are aware that you take GLP-1s.

Is it friends? Family? A partner? Your kids? People you work with? Your physician? Or do you mostly keep it to yourself?

For me, just 3 very close friends know. Before I began GLP-1/Reta, I’d already dropped about 20 kg/44 lbs on my own.

Since starting Reta 2 weeks ago, I’ve shed another 2.5 kg/5.5 lbs (I had been stalled for 6 months without medication).

That’s one reason I’m cautious about who I tell. I don’t want someone to hear “GLP-1” and instantly credit it for everything I’ve achieved, like my earlier effort meant nothing.

Who in your life knows, and what was their response?
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How it unfolds. You start by telling your friends. A few don't get bitcoin at all, so you hand them some. Then you realize, ugh, my stash is shrinking. Next thing you know, you're explaining bitcoin, and they keep asking, what's this, what's that. On the flip side, you get to hear their tales — like someone doubling up on a shot right before a trip and then being unable to poop for 3 days, or raving about a session while their arm miraculously feels fine after 2 days. Choose your own route.
 
My immediate family and my partner are aware… plus maybe 1 or 2 coworkers. I don’t hide it, but I also don’t go out of my way to bring it up.

Honestly, I can’t be bothered to care. Anyway, anyone whose opinion I’d actually value wouldn’t be putting others down. Those who do put others down have NOTHING I’m interested in.

Haters are gonna hate—starting with themselves, then moving on to everyone else.
 
Since I'm the final member of my household to begin tirz, letting them know was easy. My physician found out just last week and reacted with enthusiasm. Telling anyone that my supply comes from CN is something I really want to avoid, though I might persuade my sister to switch to gray because her insurance stopped covering it and compound is currently out of her price range.

As for friends and colleagues, time will tell, but I doubt I'll say anything. At work I'm the fat guy, so stirring up possible gossip and criticism isn't something I need.
 
How I answer this has shifted as time passed and as my confidence grew.

In the beginning, my line was simply that I had stopped drinking alcohol. Later, I worked diet changes and exercise into the explanation. Guilt weighed on me heavily because I wasn't being fully open about my GLP and the other Peps I take. These days, at 107 lbs down, I genuinely don't care anymore. If someone asks me now, my answer is that I'm running the "Trinity" stack. Usually that gets a "What is that?" back, and I ask whether they've seen the movie. "The Matrix."
 
CDRom said:

Since I'm the final member of my household to begin tirz, letting them know was easy. My physician found out just last week and reacted with enthusiasm. Telling anyone that my supply comes from CN is something I really want to avoid, though I might persuade my sister to switch to gray because her insurance stopped covering it and compound is currently out of her price range.

As for friends and colleagues, time will tell, but I doubt I'll say anything. At work I'm the fat guy, so stirring up possible gossip and criticism isn't something I need.
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That won't last much longer!!
 
ghreid said:

I went to a get-together with my cousins not long ago, and the first thing everyone brought up was how much weight I'd dropped (115lbs in the last year). My answer was diet, exercise and drugs. I went into detail about what reta was like for me. "aren't you embarressed admitting to using a GLP-1" — that came from 1 of my cousins. My response was to ask why, given that 30% of the US is on them. Right then, 4 other cousins spoke up and revealed they were using them too (something they hadn't said before). According to 1 of the women, a year of diet and exercise had left her feeling like a failure because she'd only shed 4 lbs, until her PCP said the time had come to begin the medicine.
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GRRRR! What a ridiculous take — though you handled it beautifully.
 
Anyone who brings it up or wonders how I managed it gets the honest answer from me. I explain that injectable peptides opened this whole new world for me. The responses tend to follow a pattern: doubt, pushback, shock that I'd take what they see as such a gamble. Sometimes I'll mention the tens of thousands of people like us who freely swap their personal experiences, plus all the well-developed sites offering objective looks at the science, the upsides, the downsides, the bad reactions, and pointers to animal and/or himan studies. Usually, though, I don't have the energy to walk people through all of it - only if they actually want to know.
 
European said:

I’m wondering which people in your life are aware that you take GLP-1s.

Is it friends? Family? A partner? Your kids? People you work with? Your physician? Or do you mostly keep it to yourself?

For me, just 3 very close friends know. Before I began GLP-1/Reta, I’d already dropped about 20 kg/44 lbs on my own.

Since starting Reta 2 weeks ago, I’ve shed another 2.5 kg/5.5 lbs (I had been stalled for 6 months without medication).

That’s one reason I’m cautious about who I tell. I don’t want someone to hear “GLP-1” and instantly credit it for everything I’ve achieved, like my earlier effort meant nothing.

Who in your life knows, and what was their response?
Click to expand...
My wife and kids are the only people I’ve shared it with. I’m not doing this to lose weight—I’m already fit and I’m just trying out reta.
 
Ozempic had been a media topic for some time, and for several years Novo Nordisk held the position of Europe's biggest market capitalisation. It was difficult to overlook. After that came discussion of Mounjaro, and a few months back, Retatrutide.

After doing a bit of digging on Reta, I found the subreddits, Pep-pedia, and eventually this forum.

Victoza was prescribed to me, followed by Mounjaro. On paper, Mounjaro is what I take. Because it isn't covered in my situation (diabetes is present, but my BMI falls under the cutoff), my purchases leave no record.

The powder vials are not something anyone can spot readily. Still, I keep a convenient white lie ready.

I've reconnected with some old contacts in the pharmaceutical industry, and I buy directly from the subcontractor's factory.

That holds up completely, since roughly 25 years ago I ran a biotechnology company, and oligonucleotides (PCR primers) were manufactured for us in China.

I'd say it's GL in Shanghái, which is the world's largest peptide manufacturer.

There's a good chance that many of the vials come from there. It's no big deal to get a 50kg bucket out of a monthly production run of one to two metric tons.
 
The only people I've opened up to are those I already know are battling their weight too. If someone simply spots the pounds gone and says something nice, my answer is, "Thank you! Yes I feel great! Cleaned up my diet and mostly quit drinking beer." That's honestly true—except tirzepatide is what made it possible. In a big way, lol. As for the other peps, nobody will ever hear about them from me. To the outside world they're nothing more than "vitamins and supplements" that keep me looking and feeling good. Whatever I've dug up online, anyone else could dig up too. I simply don't want eyes on me, and especially not on the reality that I'm ridiculously hooked on the grey market and keep a small stash of every single GLP, so that—well, you know—I've got it covered. Just in case. Lol.
 
My 2 doctors — the Primary/work physical Dr and the Cardiologist — were told that Intermittent Fasting is how I lost the weight. That's partially accurate. From 6pm until noon the following day, no food. Both of them were delighted by that response (and by the results), so they didn't push further.

To a handful of casual friends, I mentioned buying a self-hypnosis book; keeping a straight face isn't something I can do, so whether they bought it is unclear.

My wife, my sons, and several close friends are aware of the full story. One of them was already on it. A few decided to do it alongside me.
 
Just 1 individual. A mutual friend of my wife and me, whom I already knew was on Tirzepatide. The reason I brought it up: the first several days hit me so hard that I wanted to hear from her whether she'd had side effects too and whether they eventually fade.

Her response was 'Oh good, that's how you know it's working!'. Which left me wondering whether she meant it sarcastically. This medication affects me very strongly. At 8 weeks in I'm only at 1.5mg, and the GI issues have mostly cleared up apart from constipation, plus I can barely get any food down. Sunday, my injection day, I came close to stopping once more, but I chose to continue since it brings my BP down substantially and I've still got 30 lbs to lose, largely visceral fat. My glucose also dropped from 106 to 83, and my A1C is now close to ideal. I don't want to give those up, I'd just like to actually enjoy eating again at some point.

My wife obviously knows, since we're both using GLP-1s and we obtain them from the same place. Still, I don't feel any obligation to mention it to anyone else, unless it's another person on GLP-1s who's open to comparing experiences. That's the reason I joined here.
 
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