If You Miss a Dose of Wegovy, Here's What to Do

Step 1: Check how many days until your next dose

The first thing to do is count the days. Wegovy is injected once a week on the same day each time, so the gap between doses is normally seven days. If you realise you've missed your injection and you still have five or more days before the next one is due, you can inject the missed dose straight away. Your weekly schedule then continues from that new injection date, not the old one.

If fewer than five days remain until your next injection, the advice changes. In that situation, skip the missed dose and return to your normal day. Injecting too close to the following dose effectively doubles up your exposure in a short window, raising the likelihood of nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal effects that semaglutide is already known for. The NHS semaglutide guidance is clear: one missed injection is not worth chasing if the timing is tight.

Whatever you decide, keep a note. Knowing exactly when you last injected is useful context for your prescriber at your next review, and it helps you reset your weekly day accurately.

Step 2: Understand what a longer gap means for your treatment

A single missed week is unlikely to set your progress back in any meaningful way. The medicine stays in your body for some time after each dose, and one gap does not erase weeks of consistent treatment. What matters more is what happens after that gap.

If you miss a dose of Wegovy and then resume the following week as normal, most people find the effect continues steadily. You can read more about how the dosing schedule works on the Wegovy doses page, which covers the full titration pathway from 0.25 mg through to the maintenance dose.

Where things get more complicated is a longer break. If more than four weeks pass without an injection, your body will have largely cleared the medicine. Restarting as though nothing happened (jumping straight back to a higher dose) carries a higher risk of significant side effects. In that situation, your prescriber should be the one deciding whether to restart titration at a lower dose. That is not a decision to make alone based on general guidance.

Side effects after resuming can feel similar to those on a first dose or after a dose increase, so go gently and make sure you're eating and drinking enough.

Step 3: Decide whether to contact your prescriber

For a single missed dose handled by the five-day rule, you probably don't need to reach out immediately. The guidance in the Patient Information Leaflet covers this situation directly, and following it is appropriate.

Contact your prescriber if any of these apply: you've missed more than one dose in a row, you're returning after a break of four weeks or more, or you're unsure which dose strength you should be on because circumstances changed while you were away from the medicine. Our guide on what to do when you miss a Wegovy dose walks through each of these scenarios in detail, which can help you decide whether a call to your prescriber is needed. If you're sourcing Wegovy privately, your prescriber should be reviewing your treatment before each repeat order anyway, that's when questions like these are best raised.

At nume, every repeat order is clinically re-reviewed before it's processed. That means a real prescriber looks at your current situation, not just your original answers. If your gap has been longer than usual or something has changed, that review is the right moment to discuss it rather than guessing.

You can also check the broader picture of how treatment through a regulated service works on the Wegovy overview page, which covers eligibility, how the medicine is dispensed and what ongoing support looks like in practice.

Step 4: Get back on track without overcomplicating it

Once you've handled the missed dose (either by injecting it promptly or by skipping it) the goal is simply to re-establish your routine. Pick the same day each week going forward. Some people find tying it to a recurring event (a Monday evening, the first day of the working week) makes it easier to stay consistent than relying on memory alone.

If you're finding that missed doses are becoming a pattern rather than a one-off, it's worth raising that at your next clinical review. There may be practical reasons (pen storage, travel, a busy period) that have a simple solution. Alternatively, if injections are genuinely proving difficult, the single-dose pen format some patients use may suit your schedule better. Discuss what's available with your prescriber.

Consistency matters more than perfection. The clinical evidence supporting semaglutide's effectiveness (including data from the STEP 1 trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine) was built on a structured weekly dosing schedule. Getting back to that rhythm quickly, without guilt about the missed week, is the practical thing to do.

If you're thinking about starting Wegovy or switching to a private route that includes structured clinical oversight, you can start your free consultation with our prescribers today.