Mayim Bialik is opening up about her “GLP-1 nightmare.”
“I grew up in the limelight, with my appearance scrutinized weekly from the time I starred in my own NBC show at 14,” Bialik, 50, began in a lengthy essay for The Free Press published on Friday, June 5. “I was blissfully unaware of my weight back then. I was naturally lanky and athletic, and I ate whatever I wanted with no concern for weight gain.”
The actress, who rose to fame with her starring role in NBC’s sitcom Blossom in 1990, explained that she was “put on medication” to manage her mood when she was a teen, which led her to gain weight.
“By my 40s, still actively working as an actress, I acquired a deep sense of shame around my body. At a size 6, I felt obese,” she continued. “By the time social media arrived — with its fixation on being thinner, more toned, more surgically perfected — that pressure tipped into a disordered relationship with food that I have spent years trying to untangle.”
Bialik added that she put on an additional 20 pounds in the last several years due to early menopause, and she has struggled to shed the weight.
“Still, that’s not why I went on a GLP-1,” the Big Bang Theory alum wrote. “I went on a weight-loss drug because a doctor told me it might help ease symptoms I’ve struggled with for basically my entire adult life.”
Bialik explained that she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes the thyroid gland to produce excessive hormones, when she was 23 years old. She was prescribed a medication but did not make any diet or lifestyle changes, which she believes may have “very slowly made my condition worse.” She was later also diagnosed with connective tissue disease, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), Sjögren’s syndrome and dysautonomia.
“A few months ago, three separate doctors all suggested I try a GLP-1,” she wrote. “Not because of the 20 postmenopausal pounds but because the drugs have shown promise in reducing the systemic inflammation that drives autoimmune conditions.”
Though Bialik hoped that a GLP-1 would be her “magic cure,” she ended up having a negative experience with the medication.
“GLP-1s have helped people in serious need. Of that I am certain. But nobody talks much about what happens when it goes wrong,” she warned.
Describing the extreme side effects she experienced on the lowest dose, Bialik continued, “Explosive, uncontrollable diarrhea. Sulfur burps so violent, they left me afraid to open my mouth in public. Sneezing attacks every time I tried to eat or drink — which apparently has a name: snatiation. Cramping. Bloating. Full-body aching, as though I had the flu. And an inability to keep down even small sips of water without sprinting to the bathroom with yet more explosive diarrhea. More than three times, I didn’t make it.”
Though Bialik said she “would not blame” anyone for wanting to power through the side effects, she realized that the medication was not right for her body.
“I wish I could say I’m in the clear, but I’m not. This drug has a very long half-life; my prescribing doctor had told me to expect at least a week of this, if not more,” she noted, recalling once having to “frantically” pull off a highway to find a convenience store bathroom.
Amy Schumer has been candid over the past couple of years about her experience using weight loss drugs on her health journey. In March 2025, Schumer explained that three years ago she tried GLP-1 medication Wegovy — and did not have a pleasant time on it. “I was puking. I couldn’t handle it,” Schumer said […]
Bialik said she ultimately visited a gastroenterologist, who reassured her that these “dramatic” symptoms were not unusual.
“These medications, he said, are extremely disruptive to the body and should not be used outside of a specific, regulated set of serious medical reasons — namely, life-compromising obesity and its related health consequences. I did not meet that bar,” she explained, adding that the doctor suggested the possibility that other medications Bialik was taking may have contributed to her gut health issues.
After noting that she felt “validated” by her gastroenterologist, Bialik concluded, “On my way out, I caught a glimpse of my reflection, and I did not recoil. I did not see under my first chin that second chin on which I had been fixating for months — because it wasn’t there. My cheekbones were visible. I gazed for a moment, flashed a Mona Lisa smile, and headed to the parking lot, stopping briefly to hike up my skirt, which had started to sag at my hips ever so slightly.”
