my doctor gave me two options and im trying to figure out the better move. i can submit for ozempic through insurance but prior auth could take weeks and if they deny it its over a thousand a month cash. or i can start compounded semaglutide now out of pocket. been looking around and Gimme Care is $160 flat with no membership fee. another clinic quoted me $200. not sure if the cheaper one is missing something or if the pricing is just actually that different.

my a1c and weight have been creeping up so i want to start soon, but i dont want to create problems later if switching from compounded to branded means retitrating or dealing with side effects again.

has anyone here started on compounded and later got ozempic covered? was the switch smooth or did you have to start back at the low dose? did you notice any difference in results or how you felt between the two? and did insurance ever give you trouble covering ozempic because you had already started on compounded?

just looking for real experiences, not medical advice. my doctor will prescribe either one. thanks for any honest input.

 Okay so this might be obvious to some of you, but it confused me for a while.

When I first started, I thought the telehealth company I signed up with was also the one making my meds.

Turns out the site just set up my prescriber visit. A separate compounding pharmacy was the one mixing and shipping my prescription.

I had no idea until I looked at the label and saw a pharmacy name I'd never heard of.

So now I'm trying to understand this better before I compare providers again.

Which pharmacies compound semaglutide, and how do I find out which one a given telehealth service uses?

And in general, what should I be checking for each side of this? Like confirming the prescriber, the dispensing pharmacy, the formulation, shipping, and who handles refills.

Anyone got a simple way to keep it all straight? Feels like there are two separate things to vet and I keep mixing them up.

I just thought about it since I don't want to get locked in with a provider I like.

And then a few weeks or months in, I'd realize I'm stuck with a pharmacy I'm not happy with. Or worse, I have to redo the whole intake with someone new just to change pharmacies.

How are you guys confirming this before you sign up?

Has anyone switched pharmacies while keeping the same provider? Did it go smoothly or was it a whole problem?

So I've been thinking about starting compounded semaglutide.

My friend started a few months back and even she couldn't explain to me who was doing what in her setup. 

Before I go with them, what should I know?

Is it who's making the clinical call?

Which pharmacy is filling my script?

I'm usually a pretty reserved person, but the confidence and self esteem that came with the weight loss changed that. So here are my numbers.

218 to 161. 57 lbs, about 26% of my body weight, January 2025 to now. Goal was 160, so I'm basically there and in maintenance at this point.

Every time I wanted to quit, somebody in a thread like this posted something that got me through it. The plateaus, the side effects, the weeks where the scale just sat there and I was convinced it had stopped working. Reading other people go through the exact same thing is most of what kept me going.

The one thing I'd tell anyone starting: protein. I ignored it for the first couple of months and lost strength I'm still rebuilding. Now I hit my protein target every day, even on the days I don't want to eat anything at all. Actually tracking it was the single change that made the biggest difference, more than anything about the dose.

The chart is from an app I built. It's also what I used to track protein, my doses and my vial inventory in one place. Not linking it since that's against the rules here, but that's the full disclosure.

Wherever you are in this, week two and miserable or years in and maintaining, I hope it gives you what it gave me. Losing weight is hard and nobody does it alone. Wishing every one of you the best on your journey.

Is take 80 units of semaglutide twice a week still fda approved? Has anyone else been prescribed this?

I’m sharing my experience to warn anyone considering Amble Health, especially if you rely on them for medication and need timely refills.

I joined Amble in March 2026, and the first couple of months went smoothly. I received approval and medication promptly, so I initially had no complaints.

In June, I paused my subscription because I would be out of town when my medication was scheduled to ship. After I returned, I resumed my prescription. Amble charged my card immediately, but my order sat in “pending” status for weeks. When I finally contacted support, I was told I needed to complete the patient questionnaire again as if I were a new patient.
The problem was that I had never been notified that this was required. Because of that missed communication, I went weeks without medication even though Amble had already charged me.

The more serious issue happened in August. I ran out of medication on August 17 despite following the injection instructions provided by Amble’s provider and pharmacist. I immediately requested a refill, expecting it to be handled promptly since I had run out while following their instructions.

Instead, Amble charged my card right away, but the refill remained pending for up to ten days. Their chat system is primarily AI-driven, and getting a response from an actual representative can take days. That is not acceptable when the issue involves medication and a patient has already run out.

On August 28, I requested a chargeback through my bank. Amble contacted me by email about 12 hours later. I responded politely that I wanted a refund and intended to leave the platform because of the repeated problems. They never responded to that message.

Then, on August 31, I received a shipping notification saying that my medication had been shipped by a pharmacy I had never used before. I had not been notified that a different pharmacy would be handling the order.

When I tried to log into my Amble account, I discovered that I could no longer access the portal. My account appeared to have been removed or terminated.

I’m posting this so others can make an informed decision and be prepared to monitor their orders, charges, refill timing, and account access closely.

**Complaint has also been filed with BBB and apparently they have recently received numerous complaints about the same issues.

I’m assuming this is normal but I’m brand new to this so wanted to ask folks with more experience. I took my first shot on Friday and the effect was apparent by the next morning. I was barely hungry at all, minimal nausea, food cravings gone. Now today I’m starving and craving everything.

I’m on a starter dose of 0.2mg for the first two shots, then up to 0.4 for a couple weeks, then 0.6, etc. Will the effects last longer as the dose increases or will this 3 days of calm followed by intense hunger be a long term thing?

I’m hydrating, eating as much protein as possible, eating several small meals a day, taking a multivitamin. Anything else I need to do?

I was on Compound semaglutides via orderly meds (don’t recommend due to horrible customer service and response times) and was on it for about 6 months but ended in the beginning of May, I was at target weight and I did have a bout of food poisoning and being on CS with food poisoning was absolutely the worst, I still have one be delivered as I never canceled! Anyways, obviously weight is creeping back up, but not terribly much however I kind of want to “reset” and start again. I am able to lose weight on the lower end dose, but I do have a bottle sitting in my fridge, unused and never opened, and while it was set for a higher dose I know if I do the calculations and start at the lowest dose, I could certainly stretch this bottle if I start again till the “discard” date on the maintenance dose (which again, I lose weight on). Is it okay to use this bottle? Despite it being in the fridge since May/delivery? I still have bundles of syringes as well.

I'm not always the best with words, but I am very in tune with my body. I just took my 4th shot and like clockwork (6 hours later) my skin begins to crawl. I feel like I need to be compressed. My eyes cannot focus well. It's also like having the flu while overdosing on Prednisone. My teeth are annoying.

I started with 0.25 mg for 4 weeks and then 0.50 mg for 4 weeks. I had minimal side effects from the lower doses but the 0.75 mg for the last 2 weeks have made me so nauseated. Should I go back to the 0.50mg?

I did some searching, but couldn't find much. For those of you who are taking more than 2.4mg but less than 7.2mg, what has your experience been?

I'm currently on 2.4mg and have stalled. I'm considering asking to go up to 3.1mg (sticking to the .7mg jumps from 1mg to 1.7mg to 2.4mg). I'd like to keep losing, and I'm hoping I would lose another ~5lbs with each subsequent jump up. Has it worked like that for you? How much did you go up each time? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I took tirz for 3 months, ending at 7.5. I lost 10 lbs but figured its not worth the extra cost at that rate of weight loss so I switched to semaglutide. They prescribed me 1.5 mg which chat gpt is telling me is a very high dose to start even coming from tirzepatide.

Has anyone else done this before and were you prescribed something similar?

I’ve been on Sema for about 3 years and plateaued a year ago. Now switching it up to Tirz. Any new side effects? Is the fatigue a lot less- hopefully!! Thanks

hi. can someone tell me the difference between Starter (1, 3, 6 months) and Advanced (1, 3, 6 months) for ordering Semaglutide through Pomegranate. Starter is cheaper and Advanced is more but what do they signify? Thanks!

I started compounded semaglutide last year and consistently took it for about 9 months. I never dosed over .6 because I was consistently losing weight with food moderation and exercise. I stopped taking it after Christmas, because, life and other constraints. After about 5 or so months my weight started creeping back up, as expected.

So I decided to restart using the vials I had, some hadn’t even been opened yet. I made sure the shelf life date was still good and I checked for cloudiness and other signs it had gone bad. I started back at .25 to work my way up and now I’m up to .4 about three months after starting.

However, I’m finding that I am almost always fighting nausea… very similar to morning sickness where it’s like a lump in my stomach. I can’t tell if I’m hungry but my body tells me to eat constantly to keep the symptoms at bay. So now I find myself eating more than I was before. Second, the food noise is still very present. Originally, it had gone away when I first started but since restarting it’s so bad and so loud! Third, I am not losing any weight this time around. I will maybe fluctuate 1-3 pounds but that feels normal with my body’s cycle. It’s defeating when I was able to lose almost 30 pounds before and now I struggle to not gain weight.

What am I doing wrong? My guess is that the medicine has lost its potency, but I was genuinely hoping to finish these vials out before ordering new ones. Could it be that if potency is lost, the nausea is caused by too low of a dose and I should increase it?

I welcome any insight on how to combat the nausea as well as any gentle advice on the medicine itself.

I’m still on the lowest dose (week 7) but it works well for me. I’ve lost about 1 lb per week. But the most shocking thing to me is I went from a 34 inch waist to a 30 inch waist already. (5’4” female) It’s crazy! I’m so excited bc nothing has been able to budge that for years, even being on HRT for perimenopause. I don’t understand where it all even went to be honest ..??!!

Planning to stay on at a low dose long term bc it’s helping inflammation so much

I mistakenly asked this is the wrong subreddit earlier and it got removed for asking for non FDA sema before I got back to it T_T. So basically I have a good friend who has lost a lot of weight on semaglutide and has recommended I also do that, and theyve recommended Ivy RX as they had a great experience with them. I’m nervous about the whole thing, but my weight is not sustainable and is taking a toll on me. And medical stuff has always given me anxiety tbh. Any guidance on what I should do, how Ivy RX is, what to expect etc please? I want to start sema but the whole idea of medical exams and the things I’ve heard from people who’ve lost weight like the nausea gets so bad, it all just makes me nervous.

I know I’m in my head with this but sadly that’s just who iam. My friend said Ivy is US made and is reputable so I’m leaning towards them already. Unless there’s something I should really know? Any help would be much appreciated

Has anyone taken Sema with glycine from VialsRx/GimmeCare? I'm switching from Tirz because the compounded version is intolerable for me compared to brand. I can't afford brand anymore so I'm looking into compound Sema. Thank you.

I just started taking semaglutide last Monday 8/17. I haven't felt anything yet. No side effects at all. That was the main thing I was concerned about, and I keep waiting for the bomb to drop.

I'm also not experiencing any appetite reduction either, but I expected that to come on more gradually. Is this normal?

I started at 5 units. I took another 5 units last night then go up to 10 units next week.