Dr finally prescribed met????

tammyembry70 · 07-12-2003, 12:19 AM

My GP referred me to a gyn and i have an appt in Sept, but I called for phone consultation today and spoke to the new gyn. I gave him a basic history for over ten years!! and he said he would like to start me on met asap. And when I see him in Sept I will already had a good start on the met/glucophage. He said that I didn't absolutely have to have the glucose test since I was probably IR.

Do dr's usually prescribe this med without seeing the patient? He said he has several pcos patients and he puts all on glucophage.

I am to take 500 mg at night for 1st week then 1000mg 2nd week then 1500mg 3rd week. Along with bcps until I see him Sept then we would discuss going off bcps.

I am really nervous about taking this med. I've discussed w/ DH about ttc and I think we have decided not to since I had such a hard time dealing with false hope so many times before. I became suicidal at one point and he said it's not worth putting myself through that again.

I guess I don't know a lot about this and have been reading all the articles I can until my head spins. My question is do women take met even if they're not ttc and only want to get their cycles regular and for weight loss? That is my main goal at this point.
And how long do you take met, years? rest of your life?

I've understood my dr's to say that you only take met if you're ttc and since we've decided against that is it worth taking this med?

I'm really confused about this? I hope I"m making sense.

I'm suppose to pick up prescription Monday and start that night.

christyz · 07-12-2003, 01:50 AM

No, it's not common for Dr's to perscribe Met without seeing the patient..i think it is a rather irresponsible action considering he has not run a single blood test, but that's my humble opinion. Being "Probably IR" is not good enough for me...he should have ordered fasting glucose/insulin, testosterone, FSH LH androgen etc. Those numbers should give him some kind of indictation of whether or not you are a candidate, and so you have a baseline level to see later on if the drugs are working.

Met is often perscribed for women who are ttc, but I personally believe women deserve to have healthy hormones REGARDLESS of if they are ttc or not. Hormones effect more than fertility ...they effect metabolism, mood, skin, emotions, periods, our whole LIVES, so ttc should not be criteria for Met in my opinion.

How long you take Met depends on your individual body. Some women with minimal Insulin Resistance can get their levels normal and then stop taking Met and manage their insulin with diet and exercise. Others go off it and end up right back where they started hormonally and need it to control their hormones. They will have to stay on it for life because no amount of dietary and exercise changes will regulate them alone. Some bodies have been out of whack for so many years, that these ladies must accept that i have an insulin disorder and Met will help them control it.

You also referred to BCP. You may want to speak with your Dr about this after your insulin labs, because studies show BCP make Insulin resistance worse. So in essence Met, whose job is to improve Insulin resistance and BCP would be working *against* each other. Your body would be recieving counter signals from the two drugs.

I would not be willing to go on a drug unsupervised. There are liver and kidney tests that need to be regularly run, and it's dangerous to take it without regular intervention and supervision, much less not having even had my Dr run a single lab or taken the time to meet me face to face.

Good luck!