Get answers you can check

Which product is this, exactly?

Ask for the full medicine name, whether it is a shot or tablet, and who makes it. The ingredient name alone is not the whole answer.

Match the product to the reason for care

As of September 2026, weight management is an approved use of semaglutide (Wegovy). Semaglutide (Ozempic) has diabetes-related uses, while FDA approval from the Food and Drug Administration does not cover weight loss. A doctor may prescribe an approved medicine for a use the FDA has not approved; this is called off-label prescribing. Ask what health problem the doctor is considering the medicine for in your case.

Ask whether the medicine fits your health needs

Body mass index, shortened to BMI, compares weight with height. In the adult Wegovy weight studies, people had either a BMI at least 30, or a BMI at least 27 plus a health problem linked to weight. High blood pressure was one such health problem. Ask the doctor to work out your BMI from your height and weight and explain which study group you match. Then ask how your past illnesses and medicines affect the decision.

Check insurance payment separately

Matching the study's weight rules does not mean insurance will pay; your plan may have stricter rules. Ask your plan about payment after discussing the medicine with the doctor.

If it is made by a pharmacy, what changes?

Compounding means preparing a medicine to order instead of supplying the finished factory-made product. As of September 2026, pharmacy-made medicines are not FDA-approved. Before these medicines go on sale, the FDA does not check their safety, how well they work or their quality. Ask for the name of the pharmacy making your medicine and the pharmacy handling its shipment.

Generic means a copy that itself has FDA approval. As of September 2026, no generic semaglutide has final FDA approval for U.S. sales.

Ask for the reason in your case

As of September 2026, the FDA no longer listed semaglutide injections as being in short supply nationally. That does not tell you whether your local pharmacy has them in stock. Some pharmacies make medicine for individual patients who have prescriptions, rather than supplying batches to clinics or hospitals. As of September 2026, federal law limits how often these pharmacies may make copies of factory-made medicines already sold. A changed version can fall outside that copy limit if the doctor writing the prescription finds a significant medical benefit for you specifically.

For example, the FDA describes an allergy to a dye as a medical need a factory-made medicine may not meet. Ask whether your version changes an ingredient or something else, what medical need that change meets, and where the doctor records the reason.

A cheaper price alone is not the medical reason this law requires. The explanation needs to be about your medical need.

What belongs in your notes?

Write down past illnesses and your medicines

The medicine's official health instructions reviewed in September 2026 call for checking a rare cancer called medullary thyroid cancer in you or your family. Bring the exact cancer name from medical records; the next chapter explains why that name matters. They also call for checking past problems with digestion, including serious stomach problems. Tell the doctor about eye damage from diabetes, other diabetes medicines, pregnancy plans and any surgery coming up. List your medicines by name, along with any questions you want to remember at the visit.

Ask how to reach the doctor later

In guidance issued in May 2026, the Federation of State Medical Boards says patients need a way to raise questions once their visit ends. This is advice to the state bodies that oversee doctors; each state's law still sets its own rules. Ask who reads later messages, how replies work, and what happens if you need an in-person visit.

Talk about stopping, too

Within a year after treatment stopped, people in the STEP 1 follow-up study had regained about two-thirds of the weight they had lost. Ask how you would review a plan that becomes too costly or no longer fits.

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