Originally Posted by KYBluegrass

Many of you have been PMing me about IR, and why does met help, and should I be taking it.

Diagnosable Insulin Resistance occurs with PCOS in about 40% of the diagnosed PCOS cases. In essence, someone who is insulin resistant is on the total opposite end of the spectrum than someone who is diabetic. In a diabetic, they either do not produce enough insulin on their own or none at all. For someone who is IR, they produce WAAAAYYY too much. The effect of all this extra insulin floating around in your system is much like taking too many antibiotics...over time, your body builds up a resistance to all this extra insulin, and ignores it.
What happens, in layman's terms, is this. You eat a meal, and your insulin is released to carry the glucose to your cells. Your cells have become resistant to your insulin, so it has no where to deliver the glucose. After a period of time, your brain senses that your sugar level is still too high, and orders more insulin to be released to bring it down. Thus begins a nasty cycle. For someone who is insulin resistant, it becomes gradually worse as time passes, and it gets very easy to gain, but very hard to lose weight.
It's a catch 22 situation...as your weight increases, so does your insulin resistance. Luckily, the converse is also true. As you lose weight, your insulin resistance also decreases.
This is where metformin can be helpful. What metformin does is to resensitze your cells to your own insulin, so that you can use your insulin more efficiently. The drug itself is NOT a weight loss drug. All it will do is "level the playing field" so that if you follow a healthy diet and exercise, you can lose weight like normal people.
Now, the side benefits. Insulin is a master hormone. When one of your hormones gets out of whack, the other hormone levels in your body move up or down to compensate. This changing of the levels can cause all kinds of problems in a woman's body...hair loss/growth, reproductive problems, skin problems, and a general feeling of fatigue and even water retention. For many women, whether they are overweight or not, met helps to get these hormones back into balance by working on your insulin. Often times, taking Birth control pills or other medications that work on your hormones can sometimes throw a monkey wrench into the works...they may mask or "undo"the work that the met is doing. For others, their docs recommend it, and they do not seem to have problems. This is where communication with your doctor is vital.
Don't assume that because you are not losing a lot of weight that the met isn't working. For some of us, it takes more time to get the hormone levels where they should be. Be patient with yourself...sometimes, it may take a dosage adjustment to find what's right for you.

For those who are not dxd IR, doctors are also using met to help cysters who are having trouble ovulating or other reproductive problems. There are many cases right here on this forum that met has helped bring on AF, regulate cycles, and even helped some to conceive, even after trying clomid. The underlying key to all this is the hormones....they must be tested, and re-checked to be sure the met is helping, and the levels are moving in the right direction.

Your way of eating is important to your success with met. Even if you are not actively trying to lose weight, your results with met will be enhanced by eating a lower to moderate carb diet and exercise. Think about it....met is a Type II diabetes drug. Obviously, for a diabetic, they would make things harder for themselves if they did not watch their diet in order to feel their best. Since this really is a diabetic medication, the drug will work its best when your body is not flooded with carbs. Don't make the medication work harder than it has to, and we cannot expect to sit back and let the drug do all the work. Now, I do not mean to make taking met sound like roses and wine. For some, they simply cannot tolerate the drug, and for some, they do not experience the results that others do. As far as allowing the drug time to see results, trust me...it will take more than a couple weeks to really see what's going on.
Hope this answers some questions about met...we are all here to lend support to each other and share information. The best thing you can do to get your health back is to read everything you can get your hands on. Read the research articles on this site...learn all you can... there is new research coming out all the time, and as some of us know, we can end up teaching our docs sometimes!
Best of health to you....Tracey

Here's a link for somemore information: Everyone feel free to add links that you find!www.pslgroup.com/dg/21642a/htm

Originally Posted by Amanda6

I just got back from my doctor who is going to do lab work tomorrow to check me for insulin resistance. I have had PCOS for years and I'm hopeful that I am on the right track to effective weight loss. I'm glad I found this web site as a support system!

p.s. I tried atkins, too, and only lost 5 pounds after weeks with no carbs!! I hated it! I have an awesome cook book called "The Good Carbohydrate Cookbook" by Sandra Woodruff. It is great and even has a section on PCOS.