Know what care involves.
Bring your health history, your other medicines and your questions. Aim to leave able to explain what you heard using your own words.
What needs to happen before a prescription?
The Federation of State Medical Boards expects the standard of care during a remote visit to equal that of a visit in person.
A form where you choose from a fixed set of answers is not enough by itself, according to its guidance checked September 26, 2026. The prescriber must have a way to ask extra questions and collect the information needed to review your health.
A form that lets the prescriber ask more questions can be part of that review. It does not settle whether a phone call, video call or in-person visit is needed. State rules checked September 26, 2026 still govern how the review may happen online.
The federation’s care guidance requires tests or a physical examination when the health review calls for them. The prescriber must carry these out, organise them or refer you to someone able to do them.
Read the federation’s care guidanceMake space for your own questions.
What are we treating? Why this medicine? What else could we discuss? What would follow-up look like if the plan changes?
The federation’s guidance from May 2026 requires patients to have a way to ask questions during follow-up.
Read the prescribing guidanceBring the history that matters.
The tirzepatide labels call for a conversation about any thyroid cancer in your family. A small body part called the thyroid sits in the neck.
They also call for discussion of past problems with the pancreas, a body part behind the stomach, or the gallbladder, a small sac near the liver, and serious stomach problems.
They also call for discussion of eye disease linked to diabetes, other diabetes medicines, birth-control pills, pregnancy plans and upcoming surgery.
Write down the medicines you take and the health questions you most want answered. Bring old health reports if you are unsure what a past illness was called. Ask how to reach the prescriber between visits.
Ask what product and form are proposed.
As of September 26, 2026, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) records show approved tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) products supplied in injection pens and vials. An injection pen holds medicine and gives a shot; it is not a writing pen. A vial is a small medicine bottle used with a separate syringe.
FDA records on that date showed no approved generic tirzepatide, meaning an approved copy of the brand medicine.
With compounding, a medicine is prepared to order. It is different from supplying the drug maker’s finished product.
FDA guidance checked September 26, 2026 says compounded medicines have no FDA approval. Before sale, the agency does not review their safety, how well they work or how well they were made.
The agency had no tirzepatide shortage listing as of September 26, 2026.
Compounding rules checked September 26, 2026 restrict regularly making medicines that are essentially copies of products already sold. An exception allows a change for a named patient if the prescriber judges that it makes a medically important difference for that patient.
FDA gives an allergy to a dye as one reason a patient might need a medicine made to order.
A cheaper price does not count as that medical difference under those dated rules. The exception does not remove the other legal requirements for making medicine to order.
For example, an ordinary compounding pharmacy needs a prescription for the named patient. State pharmacy boards oversee these pharmacies, and ingredient rules still apply.
What is being changed for my medical needs? Which pharmacy makes and sends it? How do I check that pharmacy?
Ask the prescriber and pharmacy to explain how the offered medicine meets the rules. A lower price alone cannot answer that question.
Read FDA’s explanation of copy restrictionsOpen FDA’s state pharmacy licence linksFDA warns against weight-loss products sold for people to use when the label says “for research purposes” or carries the warning “not for human consumption”. The quality of these products is unknown; using them may harm health.
Read FDA’s concerns about these productsKnow which problems need attention.
Zepbound’s label lists nausea, meaning feeling sick to your stomach, among common side effects.
Diarrhea, meaning loose stools, vomiting and constipation, meaning trouble passing stool, are also common in its weight trials.
Its label also reports kidney damage after fluid loss from stomach problems.
Severe or lasting belly pain, sometimes reaching the back, is a sign the Zepbound label flags for inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a body part behind the stomach; inflammation means swelling and irritation.
Ask whom to reach if stomach problems do not settle or belly pain is severe.
Get help for a severe allergy.
MedlinePlus lists trouble breathing, face or tongue swelling, and passing out among signs of a severe allergic reaction.
Severe symptoms need emergency help. Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Read MedlinePlus on severe allergic reactionsAsk about the strongest label alert.
Both tirzepatide labels carry a boxed warning, the strongest kind of label alert, about thyroid tumours found in rats.
Whether tirzepatide causes those tumours in people is unknown.
The labels rule out use after a serious allergy to tirzepatide or its other ingredients.
Use is also ruled out if you or anyone in your family has had medullary thyroid cancer. This is a rare cancer of the thyroid.
The labels also prohibit use for people with MEN 2. This rare illness can be passed from a parent to a child. It affects body parts that make hormones, the body’s chemical messages. Its full name is multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2.
If you do not know a family illness by that name, bring its name or an old health report and ask the prescriber to check it with you.
Bring up birth control and pregnancy.
The Zepbound label says birth-control pills may work less well with tirzepatide.
Its advice to prescribers is to recommend birth control other than the pill, or an added barrier method, such as a condom, that blocks sperm.
The label specifies this protection for four weeks after treatment starts and four weeks after each dose increase.
Ask what that means for your birth-control plan, including what added protection would involve.
Zepbound’s label directs stopping the medicine when pregnancy is found.
Tell the surgical team.
Both labels warn about stomach contents reaching the lungs during surgery under anaesthesia or deep sedation.
These are medicines that put you to sleep or make you deeply drowsy. Ask the surgical team how it wants to plan your care.
Read the Zepbound labelRead the Mounjaro label