By now you’ve most likely heard about GLP-1s, offered beneath model names comparable to Ozempic and Wegovy. This class of medicines mimics naturally occurring hormones concerned in urge for food management and blood sugar regulation to deal with kind 2 diabetes and assist weight-loss efforts. It needs to be no shock, then, that conversations round these fashionable medication have largely centered on the dimensions. Nonetheless, some scientists are beginning to look extra intently into how they might impression one thing maybe much more private: our intercourse lives.
At current roughly one in 5 Individuals reviews taking or having taken a GLP-1, in keeping with a current ballot. Because the variety of individuals utilizing these medicines has soared, so have anecdotal reviews about how they’re impacting customers’ day-to-day—and sure, this consists of issues like pleasure and intercourse drive. Although there hasn’t been a ton of analysis into the connection between sexual well being and GLP-1s but, extra scientists are beginning to examine potential impacts.
In a evaluation printed in Weight problems Pillars in March 2026, for instance, researchers suggest that GLP-1s could affect need by impacting mind chemistry. However how precisely would possibly these medication impression intercourse drive? And is there a option to stay engaged in your intercourse life whereas on a GLP-1? We tapped consultants to search out out.
GLP-1 agonists could reduce your, ahem, thirst whereas dialing again starvation.
To know how GLP-1s would possibly affect libido, it helps to stroll by how they work extra broadly.
Some choices, like Wegovy and Ozempic, include semaglutide, which is an artificial model of a naturally occurring hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1. Semaglutide binds to GLP-1 receptors all through the mind and physique, serving to regulate urge for food, blood sugar, and emotions of satiety, James Simon, MD, an ob-gyn and reproductive endocrinologist and one of many researchers behind the Weight problems Pillars research, tells SELF.
Different choices, like Zepbound and Mounjaro, include a special energetic ingredient known as tirzepatide, which mimics each GLP-1 and a associated hormone, and thus impacts the physique in related methods to semaglutide.
On high of reporting decreased urge for food and elevated satiety, quite a lot of sufferers have additionally discovered that these weight-loss medicines quiet what they name “meals noise.” However because it seems, the identical elements of the mind that management urge for food are additionally chargeable for different reward-seeking behaviors, in keeping with Dr. Simon. He says this might assist clarify why taking GLP-1s could have the auxiliary impression of lowering urge for food for an additional pleasurable exercise: intercourse.
