Physicians are increasingly using weight loss drugs to treat obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions in young people, including children.

In the last three years, the number of people aged between 12 and 25 using drugs like Wagovi and

Ozempeck has surged nearly 600 percent. Ali Roggen looks at the high

demand for these drugs and the concerns surrounding them.

Approximately one in five children and adolescents in the US is obese.

But experts say early intensive treatment can prevent health issues down the line.

Early last year the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended the use of medication

to treat obesity in children's ages 12 and up.

We spoke to two young women who have been using these medications.

I had been struggling with my weight

and I had never gotten my period before

and we weren't sure what was up with it and I had taken some labs and we

found out that I had PCOS I think a lot of people think especially PCOS that they're

stuck in there isn't options and they're finding out that this is an option because it has helped me lose almost 90 pounds and I got my period and it's helped with my confidence in so many other things and continuing it I think has just shown

the effectiveness of it as well. I had tried like working out and stuff like that but like nothing was showing like helpful or like there was no

change at all in anything and so it was just kind of like hard and disappointing and the

only thing that like actually helped with all that was the medication. My appetite is like has like changed

completely and like it's been like suppressed like so much. I think the end goal is like ultimately to like get me off of it because like I don't want to be like taking it forever and like if we can like we've been lowering the dosages so like if we can slowly get me off of it and like everything like kind of like stays like

normal like or if anything like things get better and not worse then like that's good

despite the effectiveness of these drugs some doctors are concerned about the lack of data available

for children using them long term.

Dr. Melanie Cree is a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Hospital, Colorado.

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