The first time Caroline began taking Wegovy, she was entirely open about it. She shared the news with her boyfriend, her mother, and her closest friends. Over the course of six months, they watched as she successfully shed 30 pounds, moving from 130 pounds back to what she describes as her "healthy original weight" of 100 pounds. Even so, her loved ones grew worried about the extent of her weight loss and urged her not to drop any further.
"I had tried every way under the sun to lose weight," Caroline tells SELF. The 34-year-old, who lives in Montreal and asked to use only her first name to protect her privacy, admits she was simply exhausted from the relentless effort. Standing at five feet and four inches tall, she was not classified as obese and assumed her primary care physician would never approve a prescription for the medication.
Determined to find another path, she turned to the internet and found a doctor who prescribed the medication over the phone without knowing her actual weight. Immediately after starting Wegovy, she recalls, the weight began coming off at an incredible speed. After six months of treatment, she decided she wanted to stop. But the moment she discontinued the medication, the consequences were swift: she regained 10 pounds in a single month. "I realized, I can’t stop," Caroline says.
For the past six months, she has been taking Wegovy again, this time at a maintenance-level dosage. However, there is one massive difference: this time, she is keeping the treatment a secret from her boyfriend and family. Because they are now discussing the possibility of having children, she notes that her partner has witnessed all the perceived impacts of the drug and is entirely finished with it. Since she lives alone, concealing the medication is relatively manageable; she stashes the pens in the very back of the refrigerator, where they must be kept cold.
Yet the anxiety remains constant. When they travel together, she has to hide the medication in hotel room refrigerators or, when visiting his parents, slip the package into their refrigerator. "So imagine, I’m hiding stuff in my parents-in-laws’ fridge, hoping they won’t see them," she says. "It’s super awkward."
Sometimes Avoidance Is the Easiest Option
Caroline is far from alone in going to extraordinary lengths to keep her GLP-1 medication use a secret from the people closest to her. On a recent discussion thread on the r/GLP1microdosing subreddit, numerous women shared their elaborate tips, tricks, and hiding spots for concealing weight loss drugs from partners and family members. One user hides her pens inside a tomato paste box. Another utilizes a play food container borrowed from a child’s pretend kitchen.
Others have turned to an array of everyday items: opaque feta cheese containers, butter stick boxes, anchovy paste boxes, empty bottles of women’s probiotics, Alani Nu supplement containers, plastic to-go containers, metal water bottles, boxes of wine, and baking soda boxes tucked into the dark recesses of shared refrigerators—all deployed simply to keep their medication out of sight.
"It’s a real thing," Dr. Kia Mitchell, MD, a specialist in family and obesity medicine, tells SELF. She has observed numerous women in her Jacksonville, Florida, practice going to similar lengths to keep their medications hidden from partners. The first time she encountered this behavior, a patient explained that she simply wanted to avoid turning her medical choices into a household debate. She just wanted the option to take her medication without interference.
"A lot of my patients are similar," Dr. Mitchell adds. "There’s this loss of control with the gaining of the weight, but being able to control the narrative around weight loss has been empowering and exciting" for her patients. "Because now they can reveal it on their own terms. That’s where the control comes back."
The motivations behind keeping these treatments under wraps are palpable across online support communities. "If my husband found out, it would just be a series of lectures," wrote one user named Vivid-Act-6442. Another user expressed a desire to avoid critical opinions entirely, noting that after decades of marriage, people know their spouses well. Others shared that they hide their medications from their teenage children out of fear the information will reach an ex-spouse, simply wanting to avoid an avalanche of questions.
Dr. Mitchell holds mixed feelings about this culture of secrecy. Anyone embarking on a health journey fundamentally benefits from having a support network cheering them on, she notes, adding that she wants her patients to have a community. At the same time, she acknowledges that it can feel empowering and protective for women to decide who learns about their weight loss drugs—even if, ideally, a person hopes to be in a relationship built on complete trust.
From a medical perspective, however, hiding GLP-1 medications from a significant other carries tangible risks. For one, fertility can increase while taking these drugs, and Dr. Mitchell reports having several "GLP-1 babies" born to patients in her practice. There are also potential side effects to manage, and concealing treatment makes it far more difficult for a patient to seek comfort or assistance from a partner when struggling. Furthermore, secrecy inherently generates stress. "When someone is trying to lose weight, we want their stress hormones to be as low as possible," Dr. Mitchell says. "If you’re trying to hide [medication], we’ll be fighting an uphill battle if you’re stressed about that."
Telemedicine Makes It Easier to Hide Treatments
A broader complication involves hiding GLP-1 medications from primary care physicians—a feat made significantly easier by the explosive growth of telehealth companies such as Hers and Ro. This reflects the exact dilemma Caroline faces: she did not inform her regular doctor either time she started Wegovy and remains reluctant to do so now, despite harboring concerns about how the drug might interact with her prescriptions for Accutane and Ritalin. The prospect of admitting her GLP-1 use induces anxiety because she fears breaking her doctor’s trust, yet her upcoming annual physical will inevitably reveal her substantial weight loss.
"I use ChatGPT as my doctor at this point since I can’t be honest with my own doctor," she admits. "I say, ‘Hey, this is my actual weight, what type of dosage is okay to take with other drugs?’" She concedes that this is likely not the best course of action.
Caroline secured her Wegovy prescription through Hers, a process that required only basic bloodwork and provided minimal direct counseling, relying instead on documentation to read. Dr. Craig Primack, MD, head of weight loss at Hers, tells SELF that the company’s prescribing physicians do ask patients to discuss their care with their primary care providers. While acknowledging that direct counseling is limited, he points out that the platform screens for mental health, anxiety, and stress, and that the Hers app includes psychologist-built information covering topics like sleep management and eating behaviors.
Dr. Primack is acutely aware that some patients conceal their medication from their partners. He explains that individuals often withhold the information until they have proven they can successfully lose weight, while others hide it due to the financial cost or out of fear regarding how the treatment might alter relationship dynamics. "Your weight and persona set up a dynamic in your couple," Dr. Primack says. "When you start changing that, sometimes spouses get very jealous—’Oh my god, you’re becoming potentially more attractive.’ Not that weight is directly linked to that, but that’s what I hear them say."
Stigma surrounding weight and weight loss also plays a major role. "One benefit of telemedicine is it takes the bias and stigma away," Dr. Primack says. "One reason we are here is because people are uncomfortable going to talk to their primary care doctor about it."
Whether Caroline ultimately chooses to disclose her medication use to her physician, she must still contend with the broader personal conflicts raised by her Wegovy regimen and the secrecy surrounding it. "It’s very stressful," she reflects. "The fact that not only can I not talk about it, but I’m also unable to get off of it. I don’t love the idea of taking medicine like that forever, but I’m kind of stuck with it." Unwilling to regain the weight, she adds, "I wonder to which extent I’m too harsh with my criticism of my body. Maybe my goals are too intense."
Given the high degree of vulnerability and emotional sensitivity attached to weight loss, the dilemma of whether to disclose GLP-1 medication use is deeply understandable. Yet approaching the conversation thoughtfully can ease the process, according to Dr. Rachel Goldman, PhD, a clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a clinical psychologist specializing in weight management and disordered eating. Framing the discussion around personal experiences and individual needs can make the dialogue feel manageable rather than defensive, she explains.
Dr. Goldman encourages patients to first examine their underlying motivations—what led them to this choice and what the treatment signifies for their overall health and well-being. Once a person feels grounded and confident in their reasoning, communicating that decision becomes much easier. She also suggests drafting sample scripts in advance, leading with personal experiences rather than comparing oneself to others, and relying on "I" statements.
Anticipating a partner’s potential reactions and identifying desired outcomes—whether that means seeking support, understanding, or simply the space to make health decisions without judgment—can also help structure the conversation. Dr. Goldman emphasizes that a partner’s initial reaction may not be permanent, as individuals often need time to process new information and work through their own biases and misconceptions. Ultimately, the objective is not perfection, but rather opening the door to greater honesty, connection, and support over time.
