Research

Hormonal

GLP-1 agonist monotherapy (semaglutide or liraglutide) produces significantly greater weight loss and higher rates of achieving >5% and >10% weight loss compared to metformin monotherapy in patients with PCOS and obesity over a six-month period.

If you have PCOS and obesity, GLP-1 medications like semaglutide or liraglutide are likely more effective for weight loss than metformin alone. In this study, most patients on GLP-1 lost over 5% of their body weight, compared to only a quarter of those on metformin. Talk to your doctor about whether these medications are appropriate for you, considering potential side effects and cost.

ModerateSupportsLOW confidence
A significantly greater proportion of patients achieved 5% and 10% weight loss with GLP-1 treatment (84.2% and 57.8%, p = 0.01 and p = 0.02) compared to metformin.
Dushyanth Srinivasan et al. · Obesity Pillars · 2022

Why this rating

Single-center retrospective study with small sample size (n=19 GLP-1, n=12 metformin) and lack of randomization.

Source

Effect of GLP-1 agonists on weight loss in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome and obesity: A single-center study

Dushyanth Srinivasan et al. · Obesity Pillars · 2022

DOI 10.1016/j.obpill.2022.100016

cohort · n=31Cited 8×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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