Dolores Catania's Doctor Defends Prescribing Her Ozempic
She says to take a beat before you judge the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star.
The doctor who prescribed Real Housewives of New Jersey star Dolores Catania Ozempic is rushing to her patient's defense after the internet ripped Catania apart following her admittance of taking the weight loss drug.
Catania had previously revealed that she had hopped on the Ozempic "bandwagon" during a Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen appearance. "I wasn't going to come to [the Housewives] reunion looking bigger than anyone else," she said.
Catania isn't the first celebrity—or housewife—to admit to taking Ozempic, but Rocio Salas-Whalen, MD, claimed there are medical reasons why a patient may be prescribed the drug. Keep reading to find out what Salas-Whalen had to say, and why people shouldn't be judged so harshly for taking Hollywood's hottest new medical prescription.
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Salas-Whalen said people can't judge why others are "on this type of medication."
Speaking with TODAY.com, Catania's doctor cautioned there are a litany of reasons why someone may be medically prescribed Ozempic that are unrelated to Type 2 diabetes. She reasoned that appearance alone isn't the sole factor in deciding if a patient needs to go on Ozempic or Mounjaro for weight loss.
"Whenever we see somebody that we may think they don't need the medication, unless you're their doctor, you don't know their medical history," she told TODAY.com. "You don't know what medications they're taking, you don't know their internal health and the reasoning for a patient … to be on this type of medication."
Salas-Whalen said Ozempic can help with menopause and perimenopause complications.
While Salas-Whalen refrained from sharing Catania's medical history, she explained menopause and perimenopause come "with many health complications" for middle-aged women—specifically, weight gain, and loss.
"Menopause comes with many health complications. There's a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia—and if you add to that mix being overweight or having obesity, then we increase the risk for disease for the patient," she said.
"Entering menopause (at) a healthy weight is very preventative for long-term complications from aging and weight and menopause," Salas-Whalen added. "Many middle-aged woman, they benefit from this medication because it's out of their control."
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Catania revealed why she was medically prescribed Ozempic.
During an appearance on Page Six's Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, Catania said "there are layers" behind her Ozempic prescription. "I'm going through menopause, I have a thyroid issue, I have inflammation, and weight is hard to take off," she shared.
Despite her healthy lifestyle, the RHONJ star said she was still "gaining weight." Thus, she sought out a medical opinion. "I work out, and I don't eat crazy, and I was gaining weight, and it's a lot of different layers. … Let's just let everybody know," she said.
RHONJ star Jackie Goldschneider is "horrified" by how many housewives are using Ozempic.
Jackie Goldschneider, who has shared her battle with anorexia on RHONJ, has been very transparent about her thoughts about the weight loss drug.
"I'm very, very scared of what will happen if and when people have to go off of this drug, because it's just going to be like a massive number of people who gain a huge amount of weight and suddenly don't know what to do with themselves," she said on Virtual Reali-Tea. "I'm just afraid of that day—there's going to be a lot of people with eating disorders."
As an eating disorder survivor, Goldschneider said she understands how "addicting" having a thinner appearance can be. She fears that will transpire into an eating disorder for some as it did for her. "That's so addicting. I mean, that's how I spiraled into anorexia. You get addicted to this new body and to the attention that comes with it," she said.
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Two other RHONJ housewives had admitted to using Ozempic.
Catania isn't the only one of her RHONJ castmates who's using the weight loss drug to slim down. During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, newcomer Jen Fessler shared that she "took peptides" to "lose a lot of weight," (via Page Six). She also got a facelift and nose job. When asked if she was on Ozempic, Fessler quipped, "You said it, I didn't. But…whatever works, here I am."
Margaret Josephs (pictured above), who's a close friend of Catania's, admitted to taking peptides and hormone-replacement therapy to drop weight. "It's been life-changing," she told People of her 22-pound weight loss. "I feel so lucky to have found something that's really working for me."
