Metformin Questions

[syntheticklust.livejournal.com]

I was diagnosed with PCOS on Thursay and I started Metformin on Thursday night. Is it normal for the side-effects to come and go? For those of you who have been on it, how long was it before you got your first period on the medication? Did it help with the cycle length?

Xposted

Comments

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Not everyone gets the GI side effects. I did, but my partner never did.

With regard to your other query, it depends on a lot of things. Met isn't a cycle-regulating drug, it just addresses insulin resistance. So when your period resumes/normal cycling starts, very much depends on how severe your IR is, and what your body considers to be ideal conditions (in terms of weight, insulin levels, hormone levels/function) for cycles to resume.

ETA - dosages start small and are increased on the basis of need. Starting met at the maximum dose can be very dangerous, so usually people start on 500-1600mg per day, and the dose can be adjusted up to the max at the prescriber's discretion.

[geminigirl]

Although with PCOS, there seems to be evidence that even without IR, it can help with cycle regulation by interrupting the estrogen-testosterone cycles. I've had no IR with PCOS, been on Met for four years and other than the typical disruptions for pregnancy/nursing, I've been cycling regularly once I started Met.

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

No, I know that, I'm well aware of the uses of drugs like metformin in PCOS management, - but metformin wasn't ever designed to act on the menstrual cycle, so there's no set of definite outcomes or effects. Some people get nothing out of metformin at all, be it regular or XR, high dose or low dose. Whether someone has insulin resistance or not doesn't change the fact that it's what metformin is designed to do - address insulin resistance. The Pill was designed to prevent pregnancy, that was it's sole purpose. Yes it can help with PMDD, skin problems etc. but HBC wasn't designed for that purpose.

The pill - you know that's going to always automatically override cycling, prevent pregnancy etc. because that's what it was designed specifically for.
Met doesn't have that advantage because although it can affect menstrual cycles, that wasn't it's original function. Sure there's some available data now (as opposed to 13 years ago when I started it) but there's always going to be more data available (or even just anecdotal evidence) when talking about the purpose a drug was designed for, rather than an off-label usage.

All I'm trying to point out is that there is no set guide to what happens when, unlike there is with drugs designed for cycle regulation/hormonal imbalances, her endo/gyno should've explained all of that.

[paraxeni.livejournal.com]

Also, because I've edited the other one enough (sorry, morphine) although my partner got perfect 29 day cycles for a while, that stopped and couldn't be brought back despite altering her dose/formulation/timing.

I got anything from 3 days to 103 days between bleeding, then lost too much weight and developed lactic acidosis. It was only when I stopped the metformin that my periods started again, and then stopped! It was a merry-go-round, to say the least. I miss it, in a way, but death wasn't welcome in my schedule so I had to junk the met :D