Missed a Wegovy shot? Here's what to do next

The decision you're actually making when a dose is late

People sometimes assume a missed injection means starting over, or that the medicine has left their system completely. It hasn't. Semaglutide has a half-life of roughly one week, which is exactly why it's dosed weekly in the first place. One late or skipped shot doesn't flush the drug out, it creates a small dip, not a blank slate.

The real decision is a timing one. Has it been fewer than five days since the dose you missed? Take it now, then keep your original weekly day for all future injections. Has it been five days or longer? Leave it. Skip that dose, let the original schedule reassert itself, and pick up next week as normal. You can find more detail on the specific five-day boundary in our guide to what happens if you forget your Wegovy shot.

What you must not do is double up. Taking two doses within seven days to compensate raises the concentration of semaglutide in your system rapidly, and the most common result is a wave of nausea, vomiting or stomach cramps that most people find unpleasant and that can tip into dehydration if it's severe. The one-injection-per-week rule exists for a physiological reason, not administrative tidiness.

What you might feel in the days after a missed shot

Here is where some people get a surprise. In the first day or two after a missed dose, many find their appetite quietly climbs back. Foods that felt easy to walk past last week become more interesting. Hunger between meals, which may have faded considerably during treatment, can feel more present. This is normal, semaglutide's appetite-suppressing effect is concentration-dependent, and a gap means that concentration is slightly lower than usual.

For most people this is mild and temporary. It tends not to persist beyond a couple of days, and it resolves once the next dose is taken and steady-state levels recover over the following week. Our guide covering what happens if you miss a day of Wegovy explains in more detail why the effect is usually short-lived and what to expect as levels recover. If you are curious about what the longer-term picture looks like when doses are regularly missed or stopped altogether, our guide on stopping Wegovy covers that in more depth.

When a missed dose points to something worth addressing

A single forgotten injection every few months is unremarkable. A pattern of missed doses, though, is worth taking seriously, and not because you've done anything wrong. Often there's a practical explanation: the injection falls at an awkward moment in the week, nausea has made you reluctant to dose, or the pen has sat in the fridge forgotten. Those are real barriers with real solutions.

Side effects in particular are a common reason people quietly delay doses. If nausea or stomach discomfort has made you hesitant, that conversation belongs with your prescriber. Dose timing, the speed of titration, anti-nausea strategies and meal timing around the injection are all adjustable factors that a clinician can work through with you. If you have ever lost track of your schedule entirely, it is worth reading about what happens if you miss a week of Wegovy, as the guidance for a longer gap differs from missing a single day.

The NHS England guidance on weight-management injections is clear that these medicines work best when integrated with consistent support, precisely because adherence matters for outcomes. If you'd like that kind of oversight built into your prescription from the start, a free consultation with our prescribers is the place to begin. Our clinical team reviews every patient's progress before each repeat order, so a pattern of missed doses would come up naturally rather than going unnoticed.

Wegovy is a prescription-only medicine. Questions about your personal dosing schedule, including how to handle a missed injection in your specific circumstances, should always be confirmed with your prescriber or by checking the Patient Information Leaflet that comes with your pen. Our FAQs page covers many of the practical questions patients ask us most often.

Storage and practical habits that reduce missed doses

The most effective missed-dose strategy is not missing doses in the first place, and a lot of that comes down to routine. Wegovy pens need refrigerating at 2–8°C; they can be kept at room temperature for a limited period, but the exact window is specified in the Patient Information Leaflet, and it varies, so check yours rather than guessing. Keeping the pen somewhere visible in the fridge rather than tucked behind other items helps.

Tying the injection to a fixed weekly anchor works well for many people. Some choose a Sunday evening, others a Friday morning, the day matters less than the consistency. A phone reminder set for the same time each week is a simple fix. If you travel frequently, it's worth knowing how to carry the pen correctly; our Wegovy overview page includes practical guidance on what to consider.

Some people find the injection itself is a source of low-level anxiety, particularly in the first few weeks. That tends to ease as the process becomes routine. If you are new to self-injection and would find it reassuring to talk it through, our prescribers are available for support seven days a week. You can also read more about how the injection compares to related treatments on our weight-loss injections page.