less Met XR than regular Met?

saiph · 02-22-2007, 08:26 PM

I had a weird appointment with my dr today. I'm currently on 850 mg twice a day (total of 1700 mg per day). I asked the dr about the XR Met and she found it, but said it didn't come in 850 mg, which is fine, I can go down to 1500 mg per day. But then she wrote me a perscription for 750 mg ONCE per day. I argued with her a bit - how can I go from 1700 mg per day to 750 mg per day? She says its equivalent because it lasts all day, but I'm really skeptical. Has anyone else heard of this???

Pandora1151 · 02-23-2007, 06:49 PM

I've never heard that before, but it makes sense in a way. It seems like your body wouldn't be able to absorb all the regular met before it was flushed out of your system. But on the XR, it's only released a little at a time so your body has a better chance to absorb it all. This is just my opinion after pondering your question a bit, but I start a pharmacology class in a couple weeks and I just got my textbooks. One of them is a medicine guide, kinda like a medicine bible for health professionals. I will look it up for you over the weekend and post a more informed response on Monday if nobody else addresses it for you by then.

kpants · 02-23-2007, 08:20 PM

I disagree -- it sounds like either there was a miscommunication or she is not familiar with the XR for whatever reason. the dosage is the dosage, and while i'm sure it varies bit by bit .. i don't think it at all makes sense for you to go from 1700 to 750mg and attribute that to 'slow release staying in your system longer.'

while i'm not a pro so i don't know, there are a lot of cysters on these forums who switched to the XR and stayed on the same exact dosage, the only difference is that they now take all the pills at once BECAUSE it is slow release, and can be done that way. i've never, however, heard of lessensing a dose dramatically because of it. i would def look into this more and question the doc. maybe ask a pharmacist as well. i feel like the effects of met will do nothing for you at that dosage, especially if you've been using 1700.. UNLESS you feel ready to ween yourself off the met, which is essentially what taking 750 would be doing. IMO.

Pandora1151 · 02-26-2007, 11:17 AM

I looked it up. The maximum allowable dose for Met XR is 2000mg per day while the maximum allowable dose for the regular met is 3000mg per day. There was no explanation in my textbooks for why the maximum dosing is different, but I take it to mean that you can get the same benefit from less Met XR; probably not by reducing from 1700mg of regular met to 750mg of XR. I would say more like reducing to 1000mg of XR, but I'm not a doctor...I'm not even a nurse yet, I'm just studying for it. Of course, there could be a different reason altogether for why the dosing is lower on Met XR. Make sure you do your own research.

saiph · 02-26-2007, 12:58 PM

There was definitely no miscommunication - I argued with the doctor about it for several minutes. I felt stupid arguing with the supposed expert, but I just couldn't see how it could be right and I'd rather stay on regular Met than drop my dosage that much to go to XR. Arg. I'm trying a new endocrinologist soon, I'll just ask her.

Pandora1151 · 02-26-2007, 01:28 PM

Good luck with your new endo. Keep us posted please. I've just started the XR and I am curious to know what you find out.

kpants · 02-26-2007, 07:24 PM

ditto -- keep us updated. it's unfortunate but sometimes doctors don't always have the right answers. i spent 20 minutes on the phone arguing the ingredients in a BCP with my endo only to have her finally be like, oh .. yeah, that's right, when i got her to look it up.

everyone has their specialties and even doctors that know PCOS might have varying degrees of understanding when it comes to different meds, etc. at any rate - check in with the new doc. and let us know so we might all learn something new.