I turned to weight loss drugs to improve my fertility and break a generational curse. Now I'm at my goal weight.

For Branneisha Cooper, starting on weight loss medication means breaking what her grandmother calls a “generational curse" — and paving the way for her to raise the next generation.

Like many women taking GLP-1s, Cooper has polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and would only have a couple of menstrual cycles a year. “When I first got diagnosed, my endocrinologist scared me because she said, ‘It’s going to be so hard for you to have a family; you could be infertile,’” Cooper tells Yahoo Life.

She knew her weight hampered her fertility too, and that her PCOS made it harder to lose the excess pounds. Over the years, she tried everything from “regular old calorie deficit” to the keto diet to “whatever was trending at the time.” She also started taking metformin, a diabetes medication sometimes used to treat PCOS, which helps some people lose weight.

But by 2022, the efforts that had once moved the scale needle were doing nothing, and the metformin was making her feel sick. “I was fed up and emotional because I was trying so hard to lose weight, and nothing was working,” Cooper says.

She saw her doctor again, thinking that she would recommend bariatric surgery. Cooper had seen people’s success stories with weight loss medications like Mounjaro and Ozempic on TikTok, where she is a content creator. When she mentioned the drugs to her doctor, she was told, “I think you’re the perfect candidate for this,” recalls Cooper. “I was like: Sign. Me. Up!”

Three years in, Cooper has hit and maintained her goal weight and has periods every month. Her doctor even told her she could have a family now, if she wanted to. “In the foreseeable future, I want to have kids, but let me enjoy this for a couple of years,” she says. Now, she has plenty of energy to enjoy her life.

And she isn’t the only one to benefit. Cooper shared her success story with her family, and now four other relatives are taking GLP-1s too. Most members of her family have struggled with type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or a combination of conditions that make up metabolic syndrome. Now, the ones on GLP-1s have all been able to reduce their A1C, or blood sugar levels, to normal range. “I am basically the first generation out of all of us to change this,” Cooper says. “It’s impacted not only me, but my family. Selfishly, I want my mom and grandparents to be around longer, so it’s been a huge blessing.”

For our series On My Weigh, Cooper explains in her own words how her life has “done a whole 180” with the help of weight loss medications, from her morning routine to her new dinnertime rituals.

The weigh-in

• Name: Branneisha Cooper

• Age: 28

• The method: Started Mounjaro in 2022; now, I’m on Zepbound, 10 milligrams

• The goal: When I started, I just wanted to be healthier, have energy and address my PCOS so that I would have my [menstrual] cycles once a month. I started out at 241 pounds, but once I got under 200 pounds, my doctor suggested I set a goal weight, which was 160 pounds.

• Progress report card: I’ve been at my goal weight since October 2024. I am between 155 and 160 pounds. For most of my life, I would only have two to three menstrual cycles a year. I got my first one a month after I started Mounjaro in 2022, and I’ve had a cycle every month since. I have energy, and my confidence is up.

• Food noise volume: My food noise was at a 10 out of 10 before, for sure. Now, she’s still there, but it's not as prominent. Now she gets up to maybe a 3 because of hormones. This medicine is awesome, but it’s not gonna shut off that sweet craving when you have a cycle.

Day in the life

Rise and shine

Before starting on GLP-1s, I would wake up feeling tired and like I had brain fog. I would be achy just because I was in a bigger body. I immediately needed some caffeine to get me through the first half of the day. I would present myself as a happy person, but, internally, I was battling with truly accepting where I was in life [in terms of] my outer appearance and inner world.

These days, I’m a morning person, and that is a shock. I can wake up at like 6 or 7 a.m. and be OK. I don’t need to take naps anymore (though I’m still a nap girl, if I can take them on the weekends). I don’t even really drink coffee anymore.

First bites

My routine is totally different. As soon as I wake up, I make sure to make myself breakfast. I used to skip breakfast; I blame the intermittent fasting I used to do for that because I used to think, I have a time slot to eat, so I’ll wait until that 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. [eating window] to eat. Having breakfast and just being excited for the day is kind of where I am now.

For breakfast, I find myself often making a cottage cheese and egg scramble. It’s super-easy and high in protein, which I’m definitely focused on. I also try to eat colorfully, so I’ll sometimes add some spinach. If I’m going to have a protein yogurt bowl, I’ll add blueberries and banana. If I’m really in a rush, I make a protein shake and a slice of toast, but I always try to have something for breakfast.

Get ready with me

I went to school for fashion, so I was always into clothes. But when you’re in a bigger body, your choices are really limited. Plus-sized clothing has made some progress, but it’s not where it should be. But now, I can literally go into a store and leave with something that’s cute and that I feel good in.

Getting ready for the morning is different now because, for one, I wake up earlier. I have more of a routine than I did before I was on the medication. Back then, I would wake up five minutes before I had to start work, and I had my laptop right next to my bed, so I could just log on from there. Now, I get up out of bed, do my skin care, make some breakfast, do a little makeup and go for a walk.

But I’m still navigating getting ready. I have good days and bad days because I’m still trying to get used to being in a smaller body. I’m getting to a place where I’m not hiding my body anymore. I’m allowing myself to show off my success more, and my wardrobe is becoming more my style: It’s more colorful and bright and speaks to my individuality. I was never this small before, though, so this is new territory. Sometimes I find myself going back to baggy sweats. Perfect doesn’t exist, and even though I spent the majority of my life wishing to be small, now that I am, I still find myself picking myself apart. I think women — but really everybody — we all have our insecurities. But I’m telling myself, “Girl, you’ve been wishing for this moment, so enjoy it, take a step back and give yourself a reality check!”

Make a move

I try to get my workout in in the morning. I will go to Pilates at like 9 or 10 a.m. or get in a walk before it gets too hot outside. I have a gym membership. And these days, more of my social activities with my boyfriend or friends involve movement. We like to go on hikes or go dancing, rather than going out to eat or to the bar.

Let’s do lunch

If I’m working from a coffee shop or from home, I’ll have something simple like a tuna sandwich or some air fryer chicken tenders. If I go out, it might be to Chipotle, where I get a kids' quesadilla instead of a bowl with extra protein, like I did before. Or if I go to Chick-fil-A, I’ll get the salad or a wrap. I eat along the same lines, but before starting the medication, I would probably have had twice the serving amount that I have now.

Dose time

I take my injections on Wednesdays. There’s not really any rhyme or reason to that, except that I picked up the first box of medication on a Wednesday, and I wasn’t trying to wait another day to start! I was super-excited.

But I do find it helpful to have a good high-protein meal before my injection. Making sure my body is properly fueled helps to alleviate the side effects, including nausea. Plus, the closer I get to the time [when I need to take] my next shot, the hungrier I feel. Some people hate it, but I love it because it helps me make sure my body has enough calories before my dose. So I have a protein meal 20 or 30 minutes before my injection, usually around midday after lunch, because if I do it too late, it gives me insomnia.

Happy hour

I’ve pretty much lost the taste for alcohol. Wine or a margarita? Like, no. They’re kind of disgusting to me now. That took some time for my friends to get used to because my group of girlfriends would go out to happy hours every week to get a couple of drinks, wind down and catch up. Once I started the medication, I told them, “I’m not going to be drinking as much, but y’all can still do that; I’m just here for the conversations.”

Dinner bell

Since starting on GLP-1s, I find joy in cooking now. My boyfriend and I eat in a lot more often now, instead of going out. We used to order a lot of pizza with a side of cinnamon rolls or split a 30-piece chicken nugget meal from Chick-fil-A.

Cooking has now become our quality time together. And, before he started prioritizing his health, my boyfriend’s taste buds were very different from mine, but he’s been able to expand his palate. Though he really didn’t have much of a choice, because whatever we were going to cook, he was going to eat! But we’ve been trying some healthy new recipes together. Last night, we had regular chicken Alfredo, but swapped in an egg yolk pasta, and I tweaked my sauce to use fat-free milk and light cream. My boyfriend enjoys grilling, so he does the chicken. Before, we wouldn’t have cared about adding vegetables, but now we add some broccoli. But the Parmesan? Not up for debate!

That’s what a typical dinner is like: Find a healthy recipe, do some grocery shopping, turn on some music and hope for the best!

Let’s get the bill

My spending is probably about the same (partly because I love to shop). If anything, I might be spending more money because the healthier stuff just costs more. Losing weight is a privilege because things that are good for you, like protein pasta, cost more money. But instead of spending a lot of money on eating out, the money I’m saving from eating at home goes toward Pilates, activities and gym memberships. Or to buying a new wardrobe. Losing weight is also expensive because you have to buy new clothes often so they'll fit your body.

Want to share your weight loss medication story for "On My Weigh"? Email heylifeeditors@yahooinc.com.