WASHINGTON — Millions of Americans are turning to GLP-1 medications for weight loss, but as the drugs become more popular and more options emerge online, the Washington Poison Center says it is seeing a sharp rise in calls involving the medications.
Between January and September 2026, the center received 543 calls involving GLP-1 drugs, double the 272 calls it received during the same period in 2025.
The calls range from medication errors involving approved drugs to concerns about unregulated products being sold online.
For Hayley Lithwick, GLP-1 medication was life-changing, but her experience also shows how quickly things can go wrong.
“I was over 300 pounds before, and it really helped me a lot to lose a lot of weight and gain confidence,” Lithwick said.
Lithwick said she had struggled with her weight for much of her life. After asking a doctor about GLP-1 medications, she started taking Zepbound and began losing weight.
“I was not feeling as hungry. I was, you know, working out more,” she said.
But after changing jobs, Lithwick lost her insurance coverage for the medication and could no longer afford it. As she began gaining weight back, she started looking for another option.
“I decided to go on the gray market and buy retatrutide,” she said.
The website Lithwick used explicitly warned that the product was “not for human or veterinary use, consumption, or application.”
Still, Lithwick placed an order, paying about $200 for what she believed would be a month’s supply.
When the package arrived, she found vials of powder inside.
“I was so confused. I was like, what is this?” she recalled.
Lithwick said the shipment came with no instructions. She turned to the internet to figure out how to mix the powder herself, a process normally performed by pharmacists in a sterile setting.
“I was very sketched out, but I kind of felt that there wasn’t really a choice because I didn’t want to gain all this weight back,” she said.
Then she began feeling sick.
“I was sweating a lot. I had nausea... upset stomach,” Lithwick said. “I was just feeling really, really sick, and my heart was beating really, really fast.”
She said the experience was frightening enough that she considered going to the hospital.
Poison center warns about unregulated products
The Washington Poison Center says it is concerned about calls involving retatrutide.
“It’s really not supposed to be sold. It’s not sold for human consumption,” Jimmy Leonard with the Washington Poison Center said.
Leonard described retatrutide being sold online as a research chemical and warned that consumers may have no way of knowing exactly what they are receiving or injecting.
“We have some that potentially [are] contaminated with other products that can cause really bad, potentially liver failure or other end-organ damage,” Leonard said.
Medication errors drive calls involving approved GLP-1s
The problem is not limited to experimental or unregulated products.
The Washington Poison Center says calls involving approved GLP-1 medications are also climbing as the drugs surge in popularity.
Leonard said medication errors are the most common reason people call. Those errors can occur when people start a new medication, increase their dose, or share medication with someone else.
“The usual issues are the tenfold overdoses, where people say, ‘I was supposed to start on 0.25 milligrams, and then I accidentally took 2.5 milligrams,’” Leonard said.
Those mistakes can lead to significant vomiting and an inability to keep liquids down.
“You can be without food for a while, but it’s if you can’t tolerate fluids [that] are really the major issue,” Leonard said.
‘I feel a lot better now’
Lithwick later determined she likely doubled her intended dose when she mixed and injected the retatrutide.
Despite what happened, she said she remains grateful for how GLP-1 medications have changed her life.
Lithwick has lost about 200 pounds.
“I feel a lot better now than what I felt before, that’s for sure,” she said.
Eli Lilly is developing retatrutide and plans to seek FDA approval next year.
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