hormone levels / acne / periods

DianaSophie · 11-30-2004, 02:10 PM

I have been on Met for a month now - no signs of any changes yet. The Acne still hideous and i have no periods. Can anyone give me an idea of how long it takes for hormone levels to start evening out ie/ when will my acne clear up and periods return?

I know we're all different, but just wondering what approx. length of time it takes for things to clear up...

many thanks!

ellieraine · 12-01-2004, 09:47 AM

I've been taking Met since Sept this year. Unfortunately my acne is still bad, haven't noticed any difference with that. My periods were irregular before but I was bleeding. The first 2 months on Met made me bleed on and off for the entire month and it is only now that they seem to be settling down.

It is different for everyone, but give it time....

Your body needs time to adjust to the Met and hopefully then you'll see signs of improvement.

Unfortunately I had no side effects initially but am suffering now

Monte · 12-05-2004, 01:28 PM

Symptoms:

Anovulatory
Hypercholesterolemia
Acne
Depression
Weight Gain
Facial Hair

I was put on Met approx. 5 years ago, after having been on BCP for 4 years (the standard treatment 9 years ago was simply just birth control). I had a slow but steady weight gain during my sr. year in high school and all throughout college, despite the fact that I swam for a Division I school and was exercising 2-4 hours a day!!

Met (I now only take Glucophage, the brand name) has made an enormous difference in my life. After 6 months on Met, at a relatively low does of 1,000 mg, I lost 10 lbs. (without changing my diet). Over the next year and a half, I lost an additional 10 lbs. when I incorporated a lower carb lifestyle. Eventually my endo upped my dosage to 2,000 mg a day and I had even more improvements in my weight and lab results (cholesterol and triglycerides are now normal, testosterone down, fasting blood sugar at 75). The last bit of weight came off without additional changes to my diet. I now have a normal BMI and a low percentage of body fat. More importantly, I feel NORMAL!!

I would have to say that met took about a year before I began to see substantial improvements.

As far as met helping with ovulation and regular menstrual cycles, I cannot comment. I will be very interested to know! I am planning on going off of bc soon in an effort to have a baby.

To sum up my experience:

Birth control:
cleared my acne
restored my periods

Metformin:
helped me to lose weight (with diet and exercise)
balanced my emotions
reduced my cholesterol, triglycerides, testosterone levels
reduced my blood sugar and insulin levels

Unfortunately, nothing has eliminated my facial hair.

That's my experience. Everyone is different--hope it helps!

LovesFashion · 12-05-2004, 02:23 PM

diana are you on BCP too? my sister had HUGE results with yasmin+met combo, with skin and weight.

monte - why do you take gluc. now - is there a benefit over metformin? Also how was your dosage progression - i just started 1 500 pill a day this week and am working up to 1000, since im not IR. I dont knwo if 1500 or 2000 woudl eventually be beneficial for me, I guess I would have to just wait and see

Monte · 12-05-2004, 05:05 PM

Hi Loves Fashion:

It's hard to remember my progression, but I believe I started out at 500 mg/day for a couple of weeks, then 1,000 mg/day for a short time, and eventually 1,500 mg/day. I stayed on 1,500 mg for about 3 years with good results. I, too, was not diagnosed with IR, but before being put on BCP I had NEVER had a period, was steadily gaining weight, breaking out, had large cystic ovaries and my father is an insulin dependent diabetic. If I wasn't IR at that time, I was soon on my way! My endo had read research that 2,000 mg appeared to be the optimum dosage for women with PCOS and wanted me to try it (although it looks like most women on this site take about 1,500 mg). After about 6 months on 2,000 mg, my lab results were even better and a few more pounds came off. I have been on 2,000 mg for about a year with little side effects.

I suspect if I were having difficultly tolerating the 1,500 mg she would never had upped my dosage. I believe it is all about the results YOU achieve. Meaning, everybody is different. Some women need an even higher dosage (2,250-2,500) for optimal results. It all just depends...

Why do I only take Glucophage? Better lab results! For some people, either one works fine; however, Glucophage works best for me. I experienced some stomach troubles when I switched from Met to Glucophage (which tells me that they are not EXACTLY the same and in fact generic drugs do vary slightly from their brand name counterparts) but after a week or so everything ran smoothly! For some people, the variance has no effect, but that was not the case with me.

I had the same results with BCP: over a long period of time the generic bcp stopped working. There were months I did not get a period but had break through bleeding. I am now on Yasmin with no problems.

I look forward to the day that I can control my symptoms with just glucophage (no bcp). Trying to stay optimistic...

Anyway, that's my story!!