Almost half of people using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic keep that fact entirely to themselves while dating. That’s the number sitting at the centre of a new piece by Treena Orchard, an Associate Professor in Western University’s School of Health Studies, published in Western News on August 11, 2026.
The piece draws on a ZipHealth survey of 1,000 single Americans, and the numbers are genuinely interesting. Of those on GLP-1 medications, 74% dated while using them and reported going on 60% more dates per month. Over half said they felt more confident in their bodies. But 43% never told a date or romantic partner they were on the drug at all, citing reasons ranging from “too personal” to “not relevant” to flat-out embarrassment.
Orchard, whose research areas at Western include digital sexuality, dating practices, and the politics of health, frames the silence less as dishonesty and more as self-protection. Fatphobia and cultural stigma around weight loss methods make disclosure feel like a trap with no clean exit.
“GLP-1s are revolutionizing the weight loss landscape, but our mixed feelings about them mean that disclosing their use while dating is not a straightforward or easy experience.”
It’s a London connection worth paying attention to. Orchard has spent years researching how dating apps and digital culture shape the way people present themselves, and her 2024 book Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps, published by University of Toronto Press, covers adjacent territory. The Ozempic question is basically the same problem in a new form: what do you owe someone you’re dating about how you got to where you are?
The survey data itself comes with a caveat worth naming. Per the Western News article, ZipHealth is a telehealth company that sells GLP-1 access, so the survey is self-published rather than independently peer-reviewed. Orchard’s analysis is the value-add here, not the raw numbers.
The split between “it’s none of your business” and “you should probably say something” maps pretty neatly onto how people already argue about what counts as relevant disclosure in dating generally. Medication, surgery, therapy, the fact that your ex still texts you. None of it has a universal rule.
What Orchard is pointing at is that the decision isn’t made in a vacuum. It’s made inside a culture that has very loud opinions about bodies, weight, and the “right” way to lose it, and that context shapes what feels safe to say out loud on a third date.
The full piece is up at Western News, and it’s a faster read than you’d expect from an academic expert commentary.
Orchard’s faculty profile at Western lists her research focus as including gender, sex work, and digital sexuality and dating practices. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and has been featured in more than 130 media stories. The 43% who said nothing might have more company than they think.