Response to “Sex‐Specific Pharmacological Management of Obesity: Insufficient Attention”

We thank the authors for highlighting the importance of sex-specific responses to obesity medications (OMs). As they point out, when reported, OMs are effective in both men and women, but women demonstrate a small weight loss advantage compared to men [1]. In this context, our GRADE approach [2] allows us to be confident that our assigned recommendations for each medication question apply to both sexes. Nevertheless, the authors highlight the need for greater understanding of the biology underpinning this observation and outcomes studies describing the impact of sex-specific long-term weight differences on health outcomes. Our guidance statement identified similar questions of high importance to both the research and clinical communities lacking sufficiently high-quality evidence to assign a GRADE recommendation, including use of protein supplementation, impact of exercise on weight and health outcomes during OM treatment, and whether including intensive behavioral interventions significantly improves OM outcomes. These questions will be revisited, along with newly identified ones, in planned updates to our guidance statement. Our hope is that in applying this high level of evidentiary review, patients, providers, and policy makers can also have the highest level of confidence when planning and providing comprehensive obesity care. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.