Severe abdominal pain

Severe, persistent pain in your abdomen can be a sign of pancreatitis, especially if the pain spreads to your back or comes with nausea or vomiting. The MHRA strengthened its warnings about acute pancreatitis in January 2026. Suspected pancreatitis needs immediate medical assessment, and you stop treatment while doctors investigate. If pancreatitis is confirmed, do not restart the medicine.

Other causes of abdominal pain need care too. Get a clinician to assess severe pain with a swollen abdomen, persistent vomiting, being unable to pass stool or wind, fever or jaundice. Eating less or taking another laxative will not deal with these.

When to call 999

Call 999 in an emergency, such as serious difficulty breathing, collapse, signs of a severe allergic reaction or someone who is unconscious. Swelling of the tongue or throat with trouble breathing or swallowing can be an emergency. Follow the call handler's instructions.

Someone with severely low blood glucose may become confused, have a seizure or lose consciousness. Never give food or drink to someone who cannot swallow safely. If you use insulin or another medicine linked to hypoglycaemia, agree a plan with your clinician and make sure the people close to you know how to help.

Symptoms that need prompt attention

Persistent vomiting, being unable to keep fluids down, passing hardly any urine or worsening dizziness can signal serious dehydration. Get urgent medical advice. Sudden loss of vision or a major new problem with your sight also needs urgent assessment. Do not wait to see whether the problem settles after your next dose.

For urgent problems short of an emergency, contact an urgent GP service or NHS 111 where available. Local arrangements differ across the UK. If you get worse while you wait, judge the urgency again and switch to a faster service if you need to.

Tell the clinician what you take

Give the product name, the active ingredient if known, your dose, last dose, any recent increase and your other medicines. Include products supplied privately and anything not prescribed. If you think the medicine may be counterfeit or the dose wrong, say so plainly. Accurate details help your treatment.

Bring the packaging or photos if practical, but never delay emergency care to find them. Once the immediate problem is dealt with, contact your usual prescriber to arrange follow-up. Consider a Yellow Card report for a suspected reaction or quality problem. A report helps safety monitoring but does not get you urgent treatment. Use this list as a safety prompt. The list does not cover every symptom or give a diagnosis.

A distant online provider should never delay care

If your online provider is based far away, still use local urgent or emergency care. Tell the service treating you the medicine came from a private supplier and give whatever details you have. You do not need the original pharmacy's permission to have severe symptoms assessed.

After you have been treated, make sure your usual prescriber hears the outcome, so they do not issue another supply based on old information. If you are abroad, use the local emergency number and carry the medicine's generic name as well as its brand.

Sources

Your own medicine leaflet and prescriber come first. A source from another country does not mean the same rule applies in the UK.

  1. MHRA January 2026: Strengthened acute pancreatitis warnings gov.uk
  2. NHS: Dehydration nhs.uk
  3. MHRA: GLP-1 side effects and potential misuse gov.uk
  4. MHRA: GLP-1 medicines for weight loss and diabetes gov.uk

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