Taking Ozempic or Another GLP-1 Before a BBL: What to Tell Your Medellin Surgeon

A few years ago, BBL consultations rarely included a question about weight-loss injections. Now they come up constantly. Many people considering a Brazilian butt lift are taking, have recently taken or are thinking about starting a GLP-1 receptor agonist, the class of medications that includes semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy) and related drugs such as tirzepatide.

These medications matter for a BBL in two separate ways. They affect anesthesia planning, because they slow digestion. And they affect the raw material of the operation, because a BBL depends on having fat to move. This guide explains both, so you can have a clear conversation with your Medellín surgeon and anesthesiologist. It is not a substitute for that conversation, and it is not advice to start, stop or change any medication.

Issue one: anesthesia and stomach emptying

GLP-1 drugs slow the movement of food out of the stomach. That is part of how they reduce appetite. During general anesthesia or deep sedation, a stomach that still contains food raises the risk of regurgitation and aspiration, where stomach contents enter the lungs. Aspiration can cause a potentially fatal pneumonia.

In October 2024, the American Society of Anesthesiologists announced clinical practice guidance developed with the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, the International Society of Perioperative Care of Patients with Obesity and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (ASA, 2024). Its main points, in plain language:

• Most patients can keep taking their GLP-1 before elective surgery. Stopping is not automatically the safest choice; for people with diabetes, for example, stopping can raise blood sugar.
• Patients at higher risk of delayed stomach emptying need extra precautions. For those on higher doses, the guidance describes a liquid-only diet for 24 hours before the procedure.
• Clinicians may check the stomach directly. Point-of-care ultrasound can be used just before the procedure to look for stomach contents, and the anesthesia plan can be adjusted.
• Some patients should wait. Elective surgery should be postponed during the dose-escalation phase, typically four to eight weeks, and while side effects such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or constipation persist.
• The decision is shared. The anesthesiologist, surgeon and prescribing clinician should decide together whether to proceed with adjustments or to delay.

Practices outside the United States may follow different protocols, and guidance in this area is still evolving. What does not change is that your Medellín anesthesia team cannot plan around a medication they do not know about.

What to give the anesthesia team

Write this down before your consultation, because details get lost in video calls and translation:

1. The exact drug name, the dose and how often you take it.
2. The date you started and the date of any dose increase.
3. The date of your most recent dose, and the planned date of your next one.
4. Why you take it: weight management, type 2 diabetes or both.
5. Any digestive side effects in the last few weeks.
6. Your prescriber's name and contact details.
7. Any compounded or non-brand version, and where it came from.

The last point deserves emphasis. If you are taking a compounded, imported or online product, say so plainly. The anesthesiologist needs to know what you are actually taking, not only what it is meant to resemble.

Issue two: donor fat and body shape

A BBL moves fat from areas such as the abdomen, flanks or back into the buttocks. If GLP-1 treatment has substantially reduced your body fat, there may be less to harvest. That does not automatically rule out a BBL, but it may change what a surgeon thinks is achievable, which donor areas they would use, or whether they suggest a different approach.

Weight stability

Surgeons generally prefer to plan body-contouring surgery around a stable weight, and fat grafting adds a specific reason. ASPS explains that grafted fat behaves like other body fat: gaining weight can enlarge the buttocks and losing weight can reduce their volume (ASPS, accessed 2026). If you are still losing weight quickly, or plan to keep using a GLP-1 to lose more after surgery, the result could change as your weight does. That is a central planning question, not a footnote.

Questions about candidacy

Only a qualified plastic surgeon who examines you can judge candidacy. Questions worth asking:

• Is my current weight one you would plan around, or would you rather I wait until it has been stable for a while?
• Do I have enough donor fat for the result I am describing? If not, what is realistic?
• If I continue the medication after surgery and lose more weight, how might that affect the result?
• Would you suggest a different procedure for my body after weight loss, such as addressing loose skin rather than adding volume?

That last question matters for people who have lost a lot of weight. ASPS describes a buttock lift as a procedure that removes excess sagging skin and fat and does not enlarge the buttocks, which is a different goal from a BBL (ASPS, accessed 2026). Some patients find that what bothers them after weight loss is laxity rather than volume.

Timing the trip around a GLP-1

For a medical traveler, medication timing and flight timing interact. A few practical points:

The worst outcome is feeling pushed to go ahead because you have already paid for flights and lodging. Make the medication disclosure early enough that a delay, if needed, happens before you travel.

When advice from home and Medellín differs

Your prescriber at home may say one thing and the Medellín anesthesia team another. That is not unusual, because each sees a different part of the picture: your prescriber knows why you take the drug and what stopping it would mean, while the anesthesiologist is focused on the day of surgery. Do not quietly choose one set of instructions. Ask the two teams to communicate, or at least forward each one's written advice to the other, and get a single agreed plan before you travel. If no agreement is possible, that is a reason to delay surgery rather than to guess.

Recovery considerations

After surgery, appetite and nutrition matter for healing, and GLP-1 drugs reduce appetite. Ask your surgeon:

• When should I resume the medication after surgery, if I paused it?
• Are there nutrition goals, such as protein intake, you want me to meet while I heal?
• If I have nausea after anesthesia, how do I tell whether it is the medication, the pain relievers or something that needs attention?

Persistent vomiting, inability to keep fluids down, or severe abdominal pain after surgery are reasons to contact your surgical team promptly. Shortness of breath, chest pain or an unusual heartbeat after buttock surgery require immediate medical attention, according to ASPS (ASPS, accessed 2026).

Other medications and supplements still count

GLP-1 drugs get attention, but they are not the only thing your team needs to know. Blood thinners, hormonal medications, other diabetes drugs, herbal products and supplements can all matter around surgery. Bring a complete list, including anything you take only occasionally.

A GLP-1 is not a reason to hide anything or to panic. It is a reason to tell your team early, in detail, and to let them plan anesthesia and candidacy with the full picture.

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