lexibelle

It can, depending on what's causing the side effects. One of the big things is to be sure you're eating a Metformin-friendly diet. As your wife takes the Metformin, even if she's following a Met-friendly diet, she may find certain foods that don't agree with it. While I was taking Met, I discovered that while I could handle lettuce with no problem (many women find this is hard on their stomachs), oatmeal would send me running for the restroom within hours, even though it's supposed to be Met-friendly. If after making dietary adjustments your wife is still having bad stomach problems, you may want to see if you have access to the Extended Release formula (XR, I believe). Many people have said it made their stomach issues disappear unless they were 'bad' and had too many carbs or sugars.


If it works for her, then yes. The Met, for many, can be like a miracle drug. You still have to work at the exercise and healthy eating, but all of the sudden the Met can make all the work seem WORTH it because you start seeing and feeling a difference.

One more thing I wanted to mention is the dosage. When I was taking Met, I felt the best when I was at 1500mg, taking 500mg at every meal. When the doctor upped my dosage so that I was only taking it twice a day, but at a higher dose (850mg) I actually felt *worse*. I don't know if it was the amount or the fact that it wasn't spread out evenly over the course of the day. Your wife may find her 'sweet spot' at a dosage that's either lower or slightly higher than the ideal dosage.

Another thing, and this comes from personal experience - because you're going to be self-medicating, you MUST find a way to have your wife's liver functions tested regularly while she's on the medication. The reason is because Metformin can adversely effect the liver and cause liver damage if allowed to go on too long. This is the reason I'm no longer on it and why I cringe at the idea of taking it without medical monitoring. When the doctor tested me after 6 months on it, my liver enzymes were all extremely high (in one case, I believe it was 3x's the highest end of the 'normal' range). If you're going to encourage her to take it, please be sure she can get blood work done to monitor this, because unfortunately it's the only way to catch the effects before they get too bad. If I hadn't had blood work done, I would've never known what my levels were and could have possibly caused long-lasting, severe damage.

An alternative option to the Metformin if you're not able to get her the blood work, may be herbal remedies such as Hyponidd, Cinnamon, Chromium, D-Chiro Inositol or Choline-Insotiol, which are all herbs or natural compounds that have been shown to have insulin regulating properties. If you browse the Alternative Remedies board you can find multiple threads about these types of treatments.

Good luck and just wanted to add another "Thank you" from a wife who wished her husband would take such an active role in helping her fight her PCOS.

__________________