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Your two-minute checklist
- Check the label. Make sure the pen and dose match your prescription. The usual starting dose is 2.5 mg once a week for four weeks.
- Choose your weekly day. Pick a day you are likely to remember and record it.
- Read the pen instructions. Use the official Instructions for Use supplied with your KwikPen.
- Choose an approved injection area. Use the stomach, thigh or back of the upper arm and change the precise spot each time.
- Plan simple food and fluids. A smaller appetite is common, so have easy nourishing options and drinks available.
- Know when to get help. Keep the important warning symptoms somewhere easy to find.
Tell the clinical team before starting if anything has changed
Contact the team if you may be pregnant, are planning pregnancy, are breastfeeding, have had pancreatitis, are due an operation or procedure with anaesthetic, or have started or stopped another medicine.
Oral contraception can be less reliable for four weeks after starting tirzepatide and for four weeks after each dose increase. Follow the contraception advice given by your clinical team. If you use HRT containing an oral progesterone component, make sure this has also been reviewed.
Symptoms not to ignore
Get immediate help for difficulty breathing or rapid swelling of the lips, tongue or throat. Stop Mounjaro and seek urgent medical help for severe persistent stomach pain, with or without nausea and vomiting.
Read the fuller guide
For storage, missed doses, side effects and more detailed preparation, read Starting Mounjaro: the basics.
Official sources
First published July 2026. Last reviewed: 16 July 2026. Planned review: October 2026, or earlier if the product information changes.
Prepared for the Pathfields Healthy Living Portal.