In short
Between August 24 and September 22, 2026, 961 people completed the survey GLP-1 SOS sends after every order. Most are on Zepbound, Mounjaro, Ozempic or Wegovy, spread evenly from the first two weeks to more than a year in. Constipation is the side effect they most want fixed, and what they had already tried before writing to us tells a clearer story than any trial table.
This is the first of our monthly data notes. The numbers come from the questionnaire every GLP-1 SOS customer sees after checkout, so they describe people who had a problem worth paying to solve, not people on a GLP-1 in general. We say so wherever it matters. What the sample lacks in neutrality it makes up in honesty: nobody fills in a survey after buying gut support unless the gut is really the problem.
The sample
Who answered
961
people completed the survey in the 30-day window, out of 2,394 who started it
4 in 10
completed it once they started, a high rate for a post-purchase survey
May 2026
when the survey went live; more than 4,300 completed submissions since
Source: GLP-1 SOS post-purchase survey, August 24 to September 22, 2026.
Which medication, and how long
Tirzepatide leads. Almost half of respondents are on Zepbound or Mounjaro, a third on Ozempic or Wegovy, and under 2 percent on the new oral option. Nearly one in five picked Other, which in the free-text answers is mostly compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide.
Medication
What people are taking
27%
Zepbound, the single most common answer
20%
Mounjaro, so tirzepatide together is close to half
33%
Ozempic and Wegovy combined; 2% on the oral GLP-1
Q2, multiple answers allowed, so totals exceed 100%.
Time on the medication is spread almost flat. Roughly one in five are in their first two weeks, one in five are one to three months in, and one in five have been on it for more than a year. That last group matters: side effects are usually described as a first-month problem, and a fifth of the people who came to us for help are a year or more past that.
Time on a GLP-1
When people come looking for help
First month
26% of respondents
Under 2 weeks: 19%
2 to 4 weeks: 7%
What they ask: is this normal
Months 1 to 12
55% of respondents
1 to 3 months: 20%
3 to 6 months: 17%
6 to 12 months: 17%
The middle stretch
Over a year
19% of respondents
Still on it: yes
Still with side effects: yes
What they ask: what actually works
Q3, single answer. Percentages rounded.
The hardest side effect right now
Constipation, by a distance: 78 percent named it as the hardest thing they are dealing with today. Bloating and gas came second at 9 percent, nausea third at 6 percent. Read this with the sample in mind. These are people who had just bought a daily gut formula, so the gut problems are over-represented compared with the general population, where the Wegovy trials report constipation in about one adult in four and nausea in more than four in ten.
Lab note
Constipation is what people pay to fix. Nausea is what they put up with.
The second question is more useful, because it asks what else is going on besides the common three. Only 37 percent said nothing else. The rest named hair shedding (15 percent), muscle weakness (14 percent), skin changes (11 percent), taste changes (10 percent) and mood swings (6 percent). Hair and muscle are the two that people rarely connect to the medication in the first weeks, and both are consequences of eating far less rather than of the drug itself.
Beyond the common three
What else people are dealing with
Named by respondents
- Hair shedding: 15%
- Muscle weakness: 14%
- Skin changes: 11%
- Taste changes: 10%
- Mood swings: 6%
What connects them
- All track with rapid weight loss, not the receptor
- Protein and iron intake sit under most of them
- They arrive late, months after the trigger
- They are the ones people do not expect
- Each has its own page on this site
Q5, multiple answers allowed. 37% answered ‘only the common ones’.
What they had already tried
This is the question that shaped our own advice. Before ordering, 36 percent had used MiraLAX, 13 percent a stimulant laxative such as Dulcolax or senna, 9 percent magnesium, 9 percent fiber or Metamucil, and 7 percent a probiotic. One in five had tried nothing at all. Put the two ends together: the most common path is either no plan or a rescue laxative, and the steady options, water, soluble fiber and a small daily dose of magnesium, are where the fewest people start.
Before they wrote to us
The three most common paths
36%
had used MiraLAX
20%
had tried nothing
13%
had used a stimulant laxative such as Dulcolax or senna
Q7, multiple answers allowed. Magnesium 9%, fiber or Metamucil 9%, probiotic 7%.
It also explains a pattern we see in support messages every week: the swing from days of nothing to a sudden loose day. A stimulant after five stuck days, then stopping everything when the stool loosens, is exactly the overcorrection that keeps the cycle going. Our guidance, and our formula, follow from this number: steady beats rescue.
What people pay for the medication
Cost sits under everything. Insurance covers the medication for 38 percent. Another 34 percent pay under 150 dollars a month, which in practice means compounded or a savings program, and 18 percent pay between 150 and 299 dollars. Only one in ten pays more than 300. When people tell us they cannot add one more monthly expense, this is the budget they are working with.
Monthly cost
Out of pocket for the GLP-1 itself
38%
insurance covers it
34%
pay under $150 a month
10%
pay $300 or more
Q6, single answer.
What we take from it
- Side effects are not a first-month story. A fifth of the people asking for help have been on the medication for over a year. Every page on this site now says so, and our schedule of articles covers the maintenance months, not just week one.
- Hair and muscle are the quiet ones. Almost a third of respondents named one or both. Neither is on most people’s list when they start, so we moved those articles forward in the calendar.
- Rescue is the default, steady is the exception. More people had tried MiraLAX or a stimulant than magnesium, fiber and probiotics combined. That is the gap the Lab exists to close, one plain answer at a time.
- Budget is real. Roughly seven in ten either pay nothing for the medication or under 150 dollars. Anything we recommend has to make sense next to that, which is why every article names a pharmacy-shelf option before it names ours.
Method
The survey runs on every GLP-1 SOS order through a post-purchase questionnaire (KNO). Window: August 24 to September 22, 2026. 5,753 people saw it, 2,394 answered at least one question, 961 completed it. Single-answer questions sum to 100 percent; multiple-answer questions do not. Free-text answers were read but are not quoted here. Respondents are customers, so gut complaints are over-represented and the sample is not a picture of all GLP-1 users. We will publish this note every month with the same questions, so the trend is comparable even if the level is biased.
From the people behind the Lab
You do not have to figure this out alone.
GLP-1 SOS is the daily companion made for life on a GLP-1. Plain answers like this one, a support team that replies to real questions from real people, and daily formulas like GLP-1 SOS Daily Gut Relief, designed around the side effects that come with the medication. The GLP-1 Lab is our free education arm: no login, no paywall, no hype. Side effects are part of the road. Suffering through them is not.
Reviewed by the GLP-1 SOS editorial team · Education, not medical advice · Talk to your prescriber about your dose and your symptoms.
