How to take Wegovy 0.25mg: your first four weeks explained

Step 1: before you inject, storage, timing and preparation

Wegovy pens are stored in the fridge at 2–8°C. Before you inject, take the pen out and let it sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes; injecting cold semaglutide is one of the more common causes of unnecessary discomfort, and it's entirely avoidable. While it rests, wash your hands thoroughly.

Choose your injection day and stick to it. If Monday works around your routine, every injection from here on is a Monday, consistency matters because the dosing interval is seven days. If you need to shift the day by a day or two in either direction, that is usually acceptable, but the specifics are a question for your prescriber rather than a rule to apply independently.

Once you've settled on a site (abdomen, thigh, or upper arm) clean the skin with an alcohol swab and let it dry fully before injecting. Wet skin can sting. The pen is used once per week, not once per dose window; the full guidance on what to do if you miss a day is in your Patient Information Leaflet, and it's worth reading that section before your first injection rather than after a missed dose. You can find more detail on the full dosing schedule across the titration journey on our Wegovy doses page.

Step 2: the injection itself, done properly

Hold the pen firmly against the cleaned skin site. The pen is pre-filled and pre-set to 0.25mg, there's nothing to dial or measure. If you want a walkthrough of exactly how to use your starter pen correctly, our guide on how to use the Wegovy 0.25mg pen takes you through each step in detail. Press the button to activate the injection and hold the pen in place until the device signals the dose is complete, which takes a few seconds. Do not lift it away early; doing so can result in an incomplete dose.

A question our prescribers hear most weeks at this stage is whether a tiny bleed or a small bruise at the site means something went wrong. It doesn't. Both are common and settle on their own. What's worth watching for instead is a patch of hardened or dimpled skin where the needle went in, which is a sign to rotate your sites more consistently.

After injecting, replace the outer cap, then dispose of the used pen in a sharps bin. Do not attempt to recap with the inner needle cap or disassemble the pen. Once used, the pen goes in the sharps container, not the household bin. If you ever have a question about pen technique or think you might not have injected the full dose, your prescriber is the right person to ask, the FAQs section on the site covers a few of the most common follow-up queries too.

Step 3: what to expect from these first four weeks

At 0.25mg, meaningful appetite reduction is possible, though the dose is primarily a tolerability stage. The most commonly reported effects are nausea, loose stools, constipation, or reflux, often worse in the day or two immediately after each injection. Eating smaller portions, avoiding high-fat or very rich meals around injection day, and staying well hydrated all help.

Symptoms are generally more manageable at 0.25mg than at later doses, though that's not universal. Fatigue and mild headaches are also reported. If nausea is making it difficult to eat or drink enough, let your prescriber know rather than waiting for the next scheduled check-in.

Seek prompt medical help if you develop severe stomach pain that radiates into your back, with or without vomiting, this can be a sign of pancreatitis, which the MHRA highlighted in its January 2026 Drug Safety Update on GLP-1 medicines. You can also report any suspected side effects via the MHRA Yellow Card scheme, which helps build the UK safety record for these medicines.

For a broader view of what semaglutide is and how it works, the Wegovy overview page covers the clinical picture in full. If you're also considering how the injection compares with other treatment options, the weight-loss treatments overview sets out what's licensed in the UK.

Step 4: moving on, what happens after the 0.25mg pen

After four weeks at 0.25mg, the titration schedule moves upward. The standard Wegovy pathway runs through 0.5mg, 1.0mg, 1.7mg and 2.4mg, each step held for roughly four weeks and each change made by your prescriber based on how well you're tolerating the current dose, and our page on how to take Wegovy doses explains what that progression looks like in practice. Some people stay longer at a step; that's a clinical judgement, not a failure.

The 0.25mg pen is not repeated or doubled to try to speed things up. If you're wondering whether using two 0.25mg pens at once is safe or effective, our page on whether you can take two 0.25 Wegovy pens covers that question directly, and our dedicated page answering can I take 2 doses of 0.25 Wegovy covers that question in full. The titration exists precisely because semaglutide's side-effect profile is dose-dependent, and moving too quickly increases the chance of stopping treatment altogether due to GI effects that were entirely preventable.

If you haven't yet started treatment and want to understand whether Wegovy is clinically suitable for you, a free consultation with our prescribers is the place to begin. There's no algorithm involved, a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber reviews your answers personally, the same day you submit.