Thread: Is Glucophage XR as good as plain Glucophage?

I've been on 1500mg Glucophage XR since January, and have finally started ovulating again. For the past two cycles, I've ovulated on day 40 and 38 respectively.

I'm wondering if I'd see better results if I could get my Dr. to switch me to regular Glucophage, but she's very reluctant to change the dosage or switch me to the non-extended release form of the medication.

Is there any evidence that the regular (non XR) version of Glucophage works any better than the extended release?

Thanks in advance!

I have to say that I would think you are better off on XR
I had to be taken off the regular, and was getting elevated liver levels (lactic acidosis). I am soooo happy with the XR--have a much more stable day as far as sugars go and overall feel better. I am just getting started so I can't speak to the Ovulation aspect, however anything that is steady in your bloodstream seems like a better bet to me---but my opinion and $1.00 won't buy you a cup of coffee--so if you want, get a second opinion. I never o'd on glucophage, so if you are o'ing I would say to stick with what works!

Thanks for the response Lorie,

I feel so much better on the meds than I did before I started. It's been since January, but I remember feeling a fog that I just couldn't sleep away before -- and it's been gone since about a week after I started taking Glucophage.

I can laugh about it a little now, but I think I lost my last job because of the constant brain fog that I used to have. I couldn't keep my act together long enough to complete a task (I was a receptionist in a dentist office) and they shuffled me around to different offices within the practice until one day they informed me that they didn't have an office for me to work in any longer. When I filed for unemployment, it came back that they said I couldn't perform my duties.

Gee, wouldn't it have been nice for them to try and help me out rather than to get rid of me and then cover their butts?

Anyway, I'm self employed now, and I feel so much better!

Leann

I am on Metformin and asked my RE about switching to Gluc XR...I have heard that people experience less GI side-effects and remembering to take 3 pills a day is a drag! My RE would not let me switch. He said that the studies are not there yet. He said that it seems like it works just as well, but until it is proven, he would prefer that I hang on with the original. He said the studies are coming soon, and to check with him again soon.

That being said, I have read that many other cysters have gotten good results on the XR and if it seems to be working for you, then I would not rock the boat!

BTW, My period was normal the first full cycle on the Met and it looks like this cycle will be normal as well! YEAH!!! Now maybe I'll get pg soon!

I'd really like my cycles to be shorter than 50 days (with ovulation on day 38) so I was sort of hoping that if I switched to the other formulation, I'd get more regular...

Wonder if I was on a larger dosage, if my cycles would fall into line a little better?

Who knows.

Leann

Hey Leann, I really thought that the XR wasn't working as well as the regular, but I was surprised to find out that I was pregnant and didn't even know it. I wasn't charting at the time, but I was really surprised to know that I actually ovulated. I did find it convenient just taking the three pills in the morning instead of trying to remember to take them throughout the day.

Good luck to you!

Thanks Sheri,

Even when I'm not charting every day, I still pay attention to my cervical fluid. I'm one of those women who get tons of "eggwhite" cervical fluid right before ovulation -- so there's no mistaking ovulation for me.

When I don't ovulate, I don't get a period either, unless I take Provera -- and then my period is so heavy it's almost unbearable.

I haven't ovulated yet this cycle, but if things go as they have been for the past two cycles, I'll be expecting ovulation to happen sometime in the next week or so.

Leann

i just started taking metformin about two and a half weeks ago. They started me at 500mgs twice a day. At first I was feeling okay...then about three days into the therapy, my blood pressure rose quite a bit, i was feeling extremely tired -- even after getting 10 hours of sleep, bloated, and the stomach upset.

After a week, my doc reduced my doseage to 500Mgs once a day. and the sluggish feeling was greatly reduced, but my blood pressure was still high and required meds, and the stomach upset was not as bad....

So i asked to be put on the xr and the stomach upset is not an issue and i feel better. Probably because its gradually being released in my system. I think the regular met was hitting my stomach all at once and causing the spikes in my blood pressure as well as the stomach upset.

hope this helps!

For me its just that it didn't work out the same.

I was on Glucophage XR for a year and a half, and while I lost weight, and all, my periods never began again.

But when I started using regular Glucophage, (met), I actually had LESS bowel trouble, and I got my periods back 32 days into the meds.

I tihnk everyone is just different. Whatever works for your body is what is best, so I dont think its a matter of it being not as good or XR is better than Met etc etc, I think its just that everyones body chemistry is different, and so everyone is going to react different to the exact same things.