A 35-year-old man with obesity and almost nothing else in his chart arrived at an emergency department after fainting, days after he restarted a high-dose GLP-1 injection. Imaging showed a stomach inflated so hugely that it squeezed the inferior vena cava, the vein that returns blood to the heart. He dropped into low-output shock, needed very high doses of vasoactive drugs, and recovered once a nasogastric tube drained the pressure. JACC Case Reports published the case on September 30, 2026<\/a>. His story opens this page because Wegovy side effects are not a list you read on a telehealth landing page. They are a set of probabilities printed in a regulatory document, and those probabilities changed in March 2026.<\/p>\n The one-sentence answer, written for the search assistant that will lift it: the Wegovy label reports nausea in 44% of adults taking 2.4 mg weekly against 16% on placebo, diarrhea in 30%, vomiting in 24%, and altered skin sensation in 2%, with nausea reaching 39% and altered skin sensation reaching 22% at the newly approved 7.2 mg dose.<\/p>\n The manufacturer’s prescribing information sits in the National Library of Medicine’s DailyMed record<\/a>, revised in June 2026 and published on June 30, 2026. It pools three placebo-controlled weight-reduction trials: 2,116 adults on 2.4 mg weekly and 1,261 on placebo, treated for up to 68 weeks, plus a seven-week period off the drug.<\/p>\n Table 3 of that label gives nausea at 16% for placebo and 44% for Wegovy. Diarrhea runs 16% against 30%. Vomiting runs 6% against 24%. Constipation runs 11% against 24%. Abdominal pain runs 10% against 20%. Headache runs 10% against 14%, fatigue 5% against 11%, dyspepsia 3% against 9%, dizziness 4% against 8%, and hair loss 1% against 3%.<\/p>\n Roughly two adults in five will feel sick to the stomach, and one in four will vomit or stop moving their bowels normally. A clinic that says nausea is common has told the truth in its thinnest available form.<\/p>\n On March 19, 2026 the FDA approved a 7.2 mg Wegovy injection called Wegovy HD, the fourth product cleared under the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher pilot<\/a>, granted 54 days after the company filed. The label allows the step up for adults who tolerate 2.4 mg for at least four weeks when more weight reduction is clinically indicated, and the added loss is modest: 18.8% mean body weight reduction at 72 weeks in Study 8 against 15.5% at 2.4 mg and 3.9% on placebo, a difference of 3.3 percentage points.<\/p>\n The tolerability gap is not modest. Table 4 of the label reports altered skin sensation, which the label groups under the term dysesthesia, in 0% of placebo patients, 6% at 2.4 mg, and 22% at 7.2 mg. One in seventeen becomes more than one in five.<\/p>\n The FDA wrote about it in its own approval notice, and the language is worth reading twice: “Reports of altered skin sensation (described as sensitivity, pain, or burning) were common, occurred more frequently at the higher Wegovy dosage than lower dosages, and generally resolved on its own (or with dose reduction). The FDA is currently conducting further investigations regarding this drug reaction.”<\/p>\n An agency cleared a dose and opened an investigation into it in the same breath. Novo Nordisk said it expected to launch the pen in the US in April 2026.<\/p>\n Permanent discontinuation because of an adverse reaction ran 6.8% on Wegovy against 3.2% on placebo across the pooled weight-reduction trials. Nausea drove out 1.8% of them against 0.2% on placebo. Vomiting drove out 1.2% against 0%. Diarrhea drove out 0.7% against 0.1%. The label notes that most of the nausea, vomiting and diarrhea arrived during dose escalation and eased with time.<\/p>\n The early weeks do the sorting, and the STEP 4 withdrawal trial makes that plain. Published in JAMA in 2021<\/a>, it enrolled 902 adults for a 20-week run-in. Ninety-nine of them, 11%, quit before reaching randomization, and adverse reactions were the most common reason, accounting for 48 people, or 5.3%. Among the 803 who continued, gastrointestinal events hit 49.1% against 26.1% on placebo.<\/p>\n One person in nine could not get to the starting line. That is not a footnote about weak willpower. It is the titration schedule working as a filter.<\/p>\n The SELECT trial in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2023<\/a> enrolled 17,604 adults with established cardiovascular disease and no diabetes. A first major cardiovascular event occurred in 6.5% of the semaglutide group against 8.0% on placebo, hazard ratio 0.80. The same paper reports that adverse events leading to permanent discontinuation of the trial product occurred in 1,461 patients, 16.6%, on semaglutide, against 718 patients, 8.2%, on placebo. The label rounds the same finding to 16% against 8%.<\/p>\n The drug lowers the chance of a heart attack or stroke, and it pushes twice as many people off treatment permanently. Both sentences came out of one trial, and a seller who quotes only the first is running a highlight reel.<\/p>\n The postmarketing section of the label collects reports that arrived after approval. It lists acute pancreatitis and necrotizing pancreatitis, sometimes resulting in death, plus ileus, intestinal obstruction, severe constipation including fecal impaction, anaphylaxis, angioedema, pulmonary aspiration and acute kidney injury. Section 5.5 adds that most of the kidney injuries arrived in patients dehydrated by vomiting or diarrhea, and that some required hemodialysis.<\/p>\n Gallbladder disease carries trial numbers. Cholelithiasis was reported by 1.6% of Wegovy injection patients against 0.7% on placebo, and cholecystitis by 0.6% against 0.2%. Three details in the same section matter for anyone losing weight quickly: rapid weight loss raises gallstone risk on its own, the gap between Wegovy and placebo survived adjustment for how much weight came off, and the rate for patients aged 12 and older runs higher than the adult rate, at 3.8% for cholelithiasis against 0% on placebo in the pediatric weight-reduction trial.<\/p>\n A 16-year-old girl lived that paragraph. Reported in Frontiers in Pediatrics in 2026<\/a>, she moved from liraglutide to semaglutide, lost substantial weight, and had small gallstones visible on ultrasound before she stepped to 2.4 mg. Five weeks after the increase she arrived with severe upper abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, along with raised lipase, bilirubin and liver enzymes. The diagnosis was acute biliary pancreatitis. The drug stopped, a surgeon removed her gallbladder, and the authors graded the link as possible on the Naranjo scale. Her gallstones pre-dated the higher dose.<\/p>\n A 41-year-old man in Saudi Arabia developed acute pancreatitis after subcutaneous semaglutide for weight loss, written up in Annals of Medicine and Surgery in September 2026<\/a>, with no diabetes and no other cause identified. Pancreatitis holds a low rate in a table. A low rate across a large population turns into a full emergency room.<\/p>\n Dysesthesia earns its own explanation because it is the Wegovy side effect that patients search for and rarely find named. The label’s footnote on that row gathers burning sensation, tingling, hyperesthesia, allodynia, skin pain and sensitive skin under one entry. People describe a light touch that hurts, or skin that feels sunburned without sun.<\/p>\n Three case reports from 2026 show the far end of the distribution.<\/p>\n Case reports do not prove that a drug caused an event. They show a doctor judged the link worth publishing, and they draw a map of where the surveillance runs thin.<\/p>\n On January 13, 2026 the FDA asked manufacturers to delete the suicidal ideation and behavior warning<\/a> from Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound, after a review found no increased risk of that outcome. The revision history printed at the top of the Wegovy label shows section 5.10, Suicidal Behavior and Ideation, marked removed as of February 2026.<\/p>\n This correction runs against the internet’s favourite Wegovy scare, and a directory that only amplifies fear would skip it. The honest reading stays narrow: the agency found no evidence of a causal link, and an absence of signal is weaker than a promise.<\/p>\n Anyone injecting a compounded vial is not taking the product in those tables. The FDA’s page on unapproved GLP-1 drugs<\/a>, content current as of October 1, 2026, states that as of May 31, 2026 it had received 990 reports of adverse events tied to compounded semaglutide and more than 730 tied to compounded tirzepatide. The same page warns that state-licensed pharmacies which are not outsourcing facilities do not have to report, so the totals understate what happens.<\/p>\n Compounded semaglutide is not an FDA-approved drug. It has not gone through the agency’s review for safety, effectiveness and quality, and the FDA has documented compounded products dosed beyond the approved label. This page offers no dosing instruction to anyone, and no reader should take one from a directory.<\/p>\n The pooled weight-reduction trials enrolled few older adults: 233 patients, 9%, aged 65 to under 75, and 23 patients, 1%, aged 75 and older. The cardiovascular trial enrolled more, 2,656 patients aged 65 to 75 and 703 aged 75 and up, and it reported more hip and pelvis fractures among the oldest Wegovy patients than among the oldest on placebo. Resting heart rate rose by a mean of 1 to 4 beats per minute, and 26% of treated patients against 16% on placebo recorded a maximum rise of 20 beats per minute or more. The tablet form has not been studied for weight reduction in adults with type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n Small print, and for a 78-year-old reading this on a phone, a set of unanswered questions.<\/p>\n Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and constipation lead the list. In the June 2026 label’s pooled weight-reduction trials, the rates on 2.4 mg against placebo were nausea 44% against 16%, diarrhea 30% against 16%, vomiting 24% against 6%, and constipation 24% against 11%.<\/p>\n 44% at 2.4 mg weekly, against 16% on placebo. At the 7.2 mg dose the rate was 39% in Studies 8 and 9, against 35% at 2.4 mg and 13% on placebo. Nausea caused 1.8% of patients to stop treatment permanently, against 0.2% on placebo.<\/p>\n The label reports altered skin sensation, grouped under the term dysesthesia, in 2% of patients at 2.4 mg against 1% on placebo in the pooled trials. In the higher-dose studies the same row reads 22% at 7.2 mg, 6% at 2.4 mg and 0% on placebo. The FDA said on March 19, 2026 that it is investigating the reaction further.<\/p>\n 6.8% of patients stopped permanently because of an adverse reaction, against 3.2% on placebo. In the 17,604-patient SELECT cardiovascular trial, adverse events led 16.6% to stop the trial drug against 8.2% on placebo.<\/p>\n The FDA asked manufacturers to remove that warning on January 13, 2026 after a review found no increased risk of suicidal ideation or behavior, and the Wegovy label shows the section removed as of February 2026. A single safety review cannot rule out rare reactions in an individual.<\/p>\n No one has that answer. Compounded semaglutide is not the drug tested in those trials and is not FDA-approved, so its rate of side effects is not established. The FDA had received 990 reports of adverse events tied to compounded semaglutide as of May 31, 2026, and reports from non-outsourcing state pharmacies are not mandatory, so the count is a floor.<\/p>\n No page can answer that for one body. The label describes what happened to thousands of trial patients and reports what arrived after approval, which is the standard anyone weighing a weekly injection deserves to see before the first dose.<\/p>\n Sources: DailyMed (US National Library of Medicine)<\/a>, FDA<\/a>, FDA Drug Safety Communication<\/a>, New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>, JACC Case Reports<\/a>, Frontiers in Pediatrics<\/a>, European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy<\/a>, Korean Journal of Family Medicine<\/a>, JCEM Case Reports<\/a>, Annals of Medicine and Surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\nWegovy side effects – the 44% the clinic reads you<\/h2>\n
Wegovy HD – the dose cleared in March 2026 doubles the nerve symptom<\/h2>\n
Wegovy side effects – 6.8% stop, and the stops cluster early<\/h2>\n
The heart trial – the number that ends the sales pitch<\/h2>\n
Pancreatitis, gallstones and kidneys – the Wegovy side effects printed under the table<\/h2>\n
Dysesthesia and the strange ones – a nerve, a white cell count, an optic nerve<\/h2>\n
\n
The warning the FDA took off the label in February 2026<\/h2>\n
Compounded semaglutide – 990 reports, and a drug outside this label<\/h2>\n
What the trials did not cover<\/h2>\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What are the most common Wegovy side effects?<\/h3>\n
How common is nausea on Wegovy?<\/h3>\n
Does Wegovy cause nerve pain or skin burning?<\/h3>\n
How many people stop Wegovy because of side effects?<\/h3>\n
Does Wegovy cause suicidal thoughts?<\/h3>\n
Can compounded semaglutide cause the same side effects?<\/h3>\n
Is Wegovy safe?<\/h3>\n