Carol Saffran started taking Ozempic a year ago to regulate her blood sugar after other medications were ineffective. She was prediabetic, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, and her doctor prescribed Ozempic to help her avoid developing diabetes. She’s now close to her ideal body weight and has an appointment soon to check her progress in lowering her blood sugar – but after moving up to the highest dose of Ozempic, she started noticing something else.

“I would brush my hair and look at my hairbrush, and there was just a little bit more [hair] than normal,” said Saffran, 71, of the greater Boston area. “It’s not coming out in clumps or anything like that, but it’s definitely not as dense as it used to be. It just feels thinner. My hair is not as full as it used to be.”

A hair loss specialist at Tufts Medical Center, Dr. Farah Moustafa, director of laser and cosmetics, diagnosed Saffran with telogen effluvium: hair loss due to stress on the body. In Saffran’s case, that stress was the significant weight loss she experienced since being on Ozempic, Moustafa said.

Carol Saffran said her hair isn't as full as it was before she took a GLP-1 drug. Courtesy Carol Saffran

The medicines have surged in popularity in recent years. A poll released Friday by KFF found that about 1 in 8 adults say they are currently taking a GLP-1 drug to treat a chronic disease, for weight loss or both — an increase of 6% since May 2024.

Still, side effects remain a key reason why some people decide to stop taking them. Hair loss is less common than well-known side effects such as nausea, vomiting or constipation, but it’s often discussed in online weigh