Prescription Drugs

Can Ozempic Solve the Sex Recession and Raise Marriage Rates?

Maybe “solve” is overstating it. But a recent study linked GLP-1 medications to a greater likelihood of marriage or cohabitation.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown | 8.17.2026 11:45 AM

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(Photo: KKfotostock/Dreamstime. Illustration: Fatima Ruiz/Midjourney.)

GLP-1 meds—perhaps better known by brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy—have become widespread as weight loss tools. But there's evidence that links their use to to a range of positive health outcomes, and now researchers say they may "alter social and economic outcomes" too.

Specifically, relationship outcomes. In a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, the Harvard economist Rebecca Diamond found GLP-1 use linked to higher likelihood of marriage or cohabitation.

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Using data from the University of Southern California's Understanding America Study, Diamond compared the relationship status of women starting out on GLP-1 medications for weight loss purposes with those who wanted to take them but were not.

"Among women who are single when they start, the probability of being married or living with a partner rises 18 percentage points overall and 29 percentage points after six or more quarters," Diamond found. She attributes this weight loss "dramatically affect[ing] first impressions of potential partners, leading to a large increase in marriage and........

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