Ozempic tongue? How the drug can change some women’s ability to taste

There’s Ozempic finger, Ozempic breasts, Ozempic face, Ozempic butt … and now, Ozempic tongue?

Semaglutide — a popular weekly injection used for diabetes and weight loss — changes the taste sensitivity, the taste perception, and the brain’s response to sweet tastes in women with obesity, new research presented Saturday finds.

“People with obesity often perceive tastes less ‘intensely,’ and they have an inherently elevated desire for sweet and energy-dense food,” explained Mojca Jensterle Sever, of the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

For their study, Jensterle Sever and her colleagues gave 30 obese women 1 milligram of semaglutide or a placebo and followed them for 16 weeks.

Semaglutide — sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy — reduces appetite and lowers the desire for energy-dense, salty, and spicy foods, the researchers said.

Taste sensitivity was measured with strips containing different concentrations of four basic tastes.

An MRI assessed the participants’ brain responses as a sweet solution was dripped onto their tongues before and after they ate a meal. A tongue biopsy was also performed to analyze genes associated with taste.

Those who took the semaglutide saw improved taste sensitivity and experienced changes in their taste perception and brain activity in response to the sweet tastes.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, more than 0.4% of Ozempic users have reported developing dysgeusia — a condition that makes foods taste metallic, sweet, sour, or bitter.

Some have taken to TikTok to complain about changes in taste after taking the drug. “It literally kills my taste buds every week,” one woman griped.

Jensterle Sever, meanwhile, noted some limitations to her research, which was presented at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, in Boston.

“This proof-of-concept study assessed only a specific taste in a study environment, which may not reflect everyday experience,” Jensterle Sever said. “Taste perception can vary significantly from person to person, limiting the generalizability of our results.”

Still, she’s hopeful the findings could help pave the way for understanding and potentially adjusting taste preferences in people with obesity.