My D is getting ready to go to college this fall. She was diagnosed last year with probable PCOS and was just put on metformin extended release–took her first pill last night. She is easing her up from one pill a day to three over the course of a few weeks. This is largely because she has been unable to shed the 10 extra pounds that crept on and has a lot of carb cravings.
I am very nervous about the metformin, I guess because I hear it can cause terrible side effects including the fatal lactic acidosis (although I know it’s rare). The doc did bloodwork to make sure my daughter had no liver issues. So far today my D seems fine, possibly even a little less hungry than usual. I know intellectually this may be a great med for her, but I can’t get the “what ifs” out of my head. The doc is a reproductive endocrinologist specializing in PCOS, so she knows her stuff.
I have several relatives who take Metformin with good results. One with T2 diabetes has recently discontinued it because he’s now able to keep his A1C low enough by diet and exercise. The person who’s had the best results is a late-20s female with PCOS. She also slowly ramped up her dosage and has had no trouble with it, unlike a couple of others who did have some mild GI issues initially. The young woman with PCOS is thrilled with her weight loss and abatement of other symptoms, and only wishes she’d started treatment sooner. I hope it works as well for your D.
If that treatment had been around when I was younger, I would have done it in a minute. At the time, the only alternative was BCPs, which gave me terrible side effects and probably would have killed me had I stayed on them (I was later diagnosed with a clotting disorder that would have made BCPs a major no-no).
I am slightly confused. Why is your daughter’s doctor saying she has probable PCOS? I’m in my 50’s and they were able to diagnose my PCOS 20 years ago when I was trying to get pregnant. I would have thought that they would do tests to make sure that’s what she has before they put her on drugs.
MG, PCOS is a diagnosis of exclusion. There are many tests they can do to indicate that you probably have PCOS but there is no definitive test.
To diagnosis my PCOS they did an ultrasound (can’t remember if my transvaginal ultrasound was for my PCOS diagnosis but it might’ve been) and some blood work. (Though, admittedly, going to the ER more than once a year for ovarian cysts was pretty good evidence in and of itself…)
(My PCOS has been more or less controlled by BCPs and Implanon so I’m of no use to the med side- sorry )
@MichiganGeorgia and @romanigypsyeyes, her PCOS is “probable” because she didn’t fit the typical profile (fat, hairy, etc.). As you said, it’s a diagnosis of exclusion. First of all, I myself was diagnosed with it at age 16 so there’s the genetic factor. She did have an ultrasound which showed no cysts, but the doc said that didn’t rule it out. Actually, as @CountingDown said, I probably would have taken it in a minute back in the '80s if I could have. I gained something like 30 pounds in a year. Fortunately, I have been able to control my PCOS since then with diet and exercise and BCPs.
I take metformin for T2 diabetes. It can certainly have side effects such as occasional diarrhea. The key thing in minimizing that is to build up slowly. When I was taking 1500mg, I found that taking 500 in the AM and 1000 in the PM helped minimize it. Now I take 500 AM and PM. I’ve never taken the timed release type, though.
Mostly my T2 is very well controlled with diet and (not enough) exercise. My HBA1C is 5.5.
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