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Question about Met

kandeekanekid
kandeekanekid Posts: 3
in Social Groups
I was browsing the threads in our group and noticed a ton with experience with the medication.

How were you able to get your doc to give it to you?
I've been trying for the last year and neither my gen doc or OB will hand me a Rx for it, but BC (which I'm allergic to) is what they constantly suggest.

Any ideas, or maybe I'm not fully understanding what the specs of Met are.

Help?

Replies

  • miranda_mom
    miranda_mom Posts: 873 Member
    Well, I had the internal ultrasound and bloodwork and once the diagnosis was confirmed, the doctor prescribed it right away.
    The only thing I can think of is that maybe your bloodwork didn't indicate an insulin resistance? I think metformin is mainly for insulin resistance, whether it is paired with PCOS or diabetes or whatever (it is actually a diabetes drug).
  • ladypinktulip
    ladypinktulip Posts: 75 Member
    I was browsing the threads in our group and noticed a ton with experience with the medication.

    How were you able to get your doc to give it to you?
    I've been trying for the last year and neither my gen doc or OB will hand me a Rx for it, but BC (which I'm allergic to) is what they constantly suggest.

    Any ideas, or maybe I'm not fully understanding what the specs of Met are.

    Help?
    I know that when I was trying to conceive years ago the reproductive doc would not give me metformin, said it could damage the liver....well duh....all meds can do that....my pc gave it to me and I have been on it for 12 years with not a single issue and my liver and kidney labs say Im fine.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    Have you gotten bloodwork done, which included insulin, fasting glucose, and testosterone levels? Have you been able to go over the numbers with your doctor, and see the numbers for yourself?

    If you said no to either of these, get a new doctor. Yes, I'm serious.

    I had the same problem you did - neither my GP nor my OB would even run the bloodwork to test the hormone levels and insulin resistance, despite having already been diagnosed with PCOS and having responded well to Metformin in the past! All either of them would say is "join Weight Watchers, you must just not be doing it right on your own."

    They did this for the past year. It wasn't until I went in to my GP for pelvic pain and told it was "probably a cyst" and my own followup with the OB (which the GP never suggested!) that I was even able to get the bloodwork done. Even after the bloodwork showed insulin resistance and high DHEAS levels, my OB still didn't feel the need to do anything.

    Suffice it to say, I got a new GP, and am looking for a new OB. My new GP has dealt with "borderline" cases like mine (my fasting glucose was something like 99 - the line between "normal" and "insulin resistant" is 100), and has found that the cutoffs used by the laboratories are often a little off. She mentioned that around 80% or so of the "borderline normal" cases respond well to the same treatments, because their bodies do better on the other end of the "normal" ranges. So, I finally started Metformin yesterday after calling my GP after my last OB appointment.
  • miranda_mom
    miranda_mom Posts: 873 Member
    I was browsing the threads in our group and noticed a ton with experience with the medication.

    How were you able to get your doc to give it to you?
    I've been trying for the last year and neither my gen doc or OB will hand me a Rx for it, but BC (which I'm allergic to) is what they constantly suggest.

    Any ideas, or maybe I'm not fully understanding what the specs of Met are.

    Help?
    I know that when I was trying to conceive years ago the reproductive doc would not give me metformin, said it could damage the liver....well duh....all meds can do that....my pc gave it to me and I have been on it for 12 years with not a single issue and my liver and kidney labs say Im fine.

    It is true that you should get blood work regularly to make sure that there are no problems. I had my last round in April and everything looked great.
    It has been a miracle drug for me. My hair stopped falling out, my cycle resumed and I was able to get pregnant!
  • ContentedBeauty
    ContentedBeauty Posts: 21 Member
    Have you gone to an endocrinologist? That is who prescribed metformin for me. I was diagnosed with PCOS by the endocrinologist. It wasn't until last month that an OB/GYN agreed. Going to an endocrinologist may be another option for you if your insurance will cover the visit.
  • ladypinktulip
    ladypinktulip Posts: 75 Member
    Endocrinologists are more helpful for PCOS than most other docs. They see the WHOLE picture. :heart:
  • kandeekanekid
    kandeekanekid Posts: 3
    Wow, so much I didn't even think of! Thank you all.

    Here's the problem with the blood work... the last time I had some done was to test my HCG levels with my second miscarriage (to be sure my body was leveling out). My OB is biased against meds b/c she has PCOS herself and was lucky enough to drop the weight with help of her Chef hubby (must be nice). Long story short, she's demanding I drop 100lbs... fuuuun.

    As for my GP, I'm considering now more than ever to get a new one. He's rather timid and doesn't like reviewing results with me or other patients (my BFF sees him too). He ordered a test a few years back to see if I had crossed the line into hypoglycemia (didn't way where I was, but that I was def NOT diabetic and no where near).

    Thanks for the info. I'm going to do more research.
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    I'm not a diabetic, but I've told my NP that I'm highly insulin resistant. Tell them you want to start low does 500mg QD (once a day). Ask your doc to do an insulin level check. Mine was sky high.
  • presleytitus
    presleytitus Posts: 22 Member
    Endocrinologists are more helpful for PCOS than most other docs. They see the WHOLE picture. :heart:

    I agree wholeheartedly. My endocrinologist gave me more insight into my preterm labor loss at 16 weeks than my OB and GP. I would strongly recommend going to see one.
  • miranda_mom
    miranda_mom Posts: 873 Member
    If you've had two miscarriages I would definitely recommend that you pursue metformin. I am 11 weeks pregnant and my doctor recommended I keep takin it through at least the first trimester. I read a study that it can lower the risk of miscarriage in women with pcos from forty percent to eight percent. We are definitely at a higher risk of miscarriage which is awful because it can take so long to get pregnant!
  • LauraDotts
    LauraDotts Posts: 732 Member
    Find an endocrinologist that specializes in reproduction.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    Wow, so much I didn't even think of! Thank you all.

    Here's the problem with the blood work... the last time I had some done was to test my HCG levels with my second miscarriage (to be sure my body was leveling out). My OB is biased against meds b/c she has PCOS herself and was lucky enough to drop the weight with help of her Chef hubby (must be nice). Long story short, she's demanding I drop 100lbs... fuuuun.

    As for my GP, I'm considering now more than ever to get a new one. He's rather timid and doesn't like reviewing results with me or other patients (my BFF sees him too). He ordered a test a few years back to see if I had crossed the line into hypoglycemia (didn't way where I was, but that I was def NOT diabetic and no where near).

    Thanks for the info. I'm going to do more research.

    While I'm definitely not one that likes to pop pills, demand to get bloodwork done. It's your right to be able to obtain the information to be informed. Also make sure to demand that you see the results. Too many times I've only gotten "we got your bloodwork back, and everything's normal," only to later find that while the things tested were normal, they weren't what I asked for, and/or they were borderline and just happened to fall on the "normal" side of the cutoff.

    If your bloodwork comes back and your numbers are either not normal or borderline, then push for discussing the options. Take in a few days worth of MFP logs to show what you've been doing, so that your doctor can see that you are, indeed, "trying hard enough." If she still insists that you should be able to lose weight on your own, and you must just not be "trying hard enough", or that you're "doing it wrong", or that your inability to lose weight is a failing on your part, then fire her and get a new GP.

    Fire your GP and get a new one. Again, it's your right to be informed, and if your doctor doesn't go over bloodwork or any other lab results with you, then that doctor is pretty useless.

    I've been in your situation, where both my GP and OB insisted that my inability to lose weight was a personal failing, and even after the tests came back, my OB still felt nothing was "worth acting on" (I had already found a new GP by that point). It sucks. It's morale-breaking. And it's lonely as hell (nothing like everyone telling you everything's fine when you know something is wrong).

    On a side note, re hypoglycemia - You don't have to be diabetic to be hypoglycemic. Diabetes can swing both ways (hypO and hypER), due to the general inability to produce the correct amount of insulin, and due impaired insulin sensitivity. Hypoglycemia is just an over-reactive insulin response (or creating insulin when it's not needed). It can be a precursor to Diabetes, but the two are, technically, different.

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