The Big Bang Theory actor Mayim Bialik has joined a growing list of well-known figures speaking about their experiences with GPL-1 injections.
Medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro are designed for people with type 2 diabetes to help manage blood sugar, though they’ve also become widely used for weight loss.
Like many prescriptions, these drugs can come with side effects. Reported issues include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain, and responses can vary significantly from person to person.
Bialik has now revealed that after only a single dose, she dealt with intense gastrointestinal problems that didn’t quickly resolve.
She shared the experience in an essay published by The Free Press, explaining that she took the medication on medical advice — and not as a weight-loss aid.
Instead, she said she was hoping it could ease symptoms connected to an autoimmune condition she’d been battling for years.
Bialik, 50, was diagnosed with Graves’ disease at 23. Describing the years that followed, she wrote: “Twenty-five years, four unexplained hernias, and four exploratory surgeries later, I was well past perimenopause and drowning in symptoms I couldn’t explain.” She said those symptoms included “full-body rashes, palpitations and hourly wake ups.”
She explained that doctors advised trying GPL-1s because they ‘had shown promise in reducing systemic inflammation which drives these conditions.’
But after starting the medication, Bialik said her reaction was dramatic — adding that describing it as ‘an adverse reaction would be an understatement.’
Even on the smallest dose, she reported ‘explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea, violent sulfur burps and sneezing attacks every time she tried to eat or drink.’
She also detailed severe cramping, bloating and flu-like symptoms, alongside what she described as ‘what was closer to an allergic reaction’.
The actor wrote that she was unsettled by her doctors’ calm response, saying they indicated that ‘extreme side effects were not unusual’.
“And yet, in the depth of my misery—my exhausted body, my aching joints, another pair of ruined underwear—a piercing, devastating thought occurred to me: At least you might lose some weight,” she wrote.
While she said she ‘wouldn’t blame’ others for deciding to continue despite the symptoms, she chose to stop taking the drug.
According to Bialik, the after-effects lingered for weeks, which she attributed to the medication’s ‘long half-life,’.
She’s not alone in reporting a difficult experience. Reality TV star Kris Jenner has also spoken about taking the drug, saying it left her ‘feeling so sick’ she couldn’t work.