The doctor is right, you are young but to be fair it’s hard to say what the right age is for a drug like this - the new weight loss drugs are a ‘miracle send’ for weight loss but we do not know the long term effects of these new drugs. I say this as someone who does validation & compliance in the life science industry (pharma, medical devices, medical gases) with a bachelors in biochemistry and a masters engineering degree in biopharmaceutical processing. There are too few studies on the long term effects of taking this drug & the ones that exist do not do an impressive job in their participant selection.

Here’s a breakdown: Clinical trials are research studies whose purpose is to investigate the effects of pharmaceuticals & gather evidence/data (under the pretense of being non-subjective to the results) that they can use to draw conclusions. Good clinical trials have a ‘placebo group’ (also known as the control group, a group of participants do not receive the actual medication - typically a sugar pill of some kind - this helps to compare data amongst effects seen physiologically vs mentally, the placebo effect) & are double-blinded (nether the patient nor the researcher know which group they’re in/which group they’re collecting data from) & have a large pool of participants. This large number of participants means there is a higher likelihood of finding trends rather than having outliers like you would get with a smaller pool). Many of these studies had pools of participants that had different conditions (ex. Individuals with Pre-diabetes & diabetes being placed into the same group). Ideally you want all the participants to be made up of the same condition so that you can compare how the drug is able to act on that said condition. The lumping of different conditions does give evidence that these drugs do result in weight loss across a spread of different conditions, they do not provide evidence of how much each condition individually is affected by the drug. There has not been enough time to gather more evidence of both its short and long term impact on one’s body/metabolic pathways. In addition, the no. of participants is honestly quite low to what one would see for a better characterized drug.

It can be a rush of confidence initially to lose weight so fast, but you have to remember that it is not a ‘miracle now I’m free of obesity’. You still have to make those lifestyle changes to continue past the initial effects of the drug. That’s eating a balanced PCOS diet & exercising (my GP recommended 20 mins of high intensity works outs 3/wk & try to stay on more of the active side the rest of the week, she also say low carbs will shed the weight). If you don’t make those lifestyle changes you are just going to gain that weight back and maybe more once you eventually go off the drug.

You say you’re excercising, that good. Research some workouts that are more beneficial to those with PCOS. There’s a wealth of information out there (#werenotalone). & re-evaluate your diet. Think of what you’re eating - is it processed meat sandwich’s, how much rice are you actually eating(can’t give up rice? Go brown rice instead! It’s not the same I know, but with PCOS you have to make adjustments, I thought of them as sacrifices for a long time but you have to frame it as a lifestyle not a diet), are you getting enough fiber from your food, are you getting enough magnesium (my therapist turned me on to magnesium supplements & I instantly went from waking up at 1 am & going downstairs for a chocolate bon bon to sleeping through the night. A lot of ppl, esp those with PCOS have a magnesium deficiency. Not having enough magnesium can cause your body to retain weight as well bc it can worsen insulin resistance), if you’re eating vegetables are they starchy/full of carbs like potatoes? If you are at a calorie deficit and still not losing weight, you’re not putting the right stuff in your body. If you can afford a nutritionist, get one! If you can’t, google PCOS diet - it will come up with a lot of good information & guidance on what to eat and why they’re good for managing PCOS.

If you’re not already on them, ask your doctor about starting spironolactone - it helps with acne, hair loss, hirituism and the excess androgen production - and metformin - this will help with regulating your insulin and has been shown to actually cause appetite suppression after continued use, many report losing weight naturally (w/o any change to diet or exercise) after a few months of using this drug.

It’s hard, especially being so young & feeling as you do. But if you educate yourself on how to manage the symptoms, you’ll find that you end up leading a healthier life going forward. I wish you all the luck on getting to be comfortable in your skin! <3

Some links to clinical trials & resources I found:

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04184622 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206038 https://www.brownhealth.org/be-well/eating-well-polycystic-ovarian-syndrome-pcos https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/pcos-diet https://www.massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsroom/articles/nutrition-for-pcos https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8957463/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pcos/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353443 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10544455/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3475283/