Met and liver enzymes

MicKen · 05-03-2002, 11:37 PM

My endo says I have a "slightly" elevated liver enzyme. She said this is because I am fat (I am 5'7 and wiegh 200lbs). Now, I was just diagnosed with diabetes last december. I was seeing an RE for fertility treatment before he gave me the boot after my diabetes
diagnosis. He did all the preliminary testing for PCOS and diagnosed me, but I don't remember him saying initially anything about an elevated liver enzyme. I am starting to wonder if it is partially because of the met, not just my being overweight. I started met after my initial diagnosis of PCOS a little over a year ago.

My endo is very strict. I am not losing weight, and I know she will "fire" me if I don't. But she really scared me with the liver enzyme thing..she even said it would lead to cirrhosis if I didn't lose weight. I have heard she is big on scare tactics (from people who work with her), but noone needs to tell me I need to lose weight, damn it I KNOW that. I have seen a dietician who was frankly of no help...wants me to increase my carb intake and doesn't like my endo. So I get conflicting stories.

Rambling, but point is...has anyone ever had elevated enzymes from met? I wonder if I should try to do without it to control the diabetes since I am not doing so good with
weight loss...

Autumn_1972 · 05-06-2002, 10:14 PM

I have seen another post on here about slightly elevated liver enzymes and metformin. I wish I had some advice for you other than that.

cystermoon · 05-07-2002, 01:12 AM

MicKen:
I was led to believe it is due to the Met and not being overweight. I know that your doctor should run a liver check every year because you are on Met. I had to tell my pcp to do so, and because I was going through IVF my RE just ran another one on me. Apparently I'm fine now, but since we take more than the average person, it is very important to have it checked regularly.

Outside of this piece of information, I'm not sure why this develops or what is done to lower it. But I am surprised your RE is so insistant that it is your weight causing it.

------------------
JANET
Leap Day Baby-1964

Living w/PCOS and Diabetes
(DX with both in March 2000)
1500 mg/day glucaphage
Angel babies-(Jan. '97 and July '97)
Starting a new journey--IVF.
Woohoo, I passed the clomid test, IVF here we come

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step"-Lao-Tzu
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
cystermoon@soulcyster.com

[This message has been edited by cystermoon (edited 05-06-2002).]

[This message has been edited by cystermoon (edited 05-06-2002).]

morninglight · 05-13-2002, 08:12 PM

I have elevated liver enzymes due to met. When my doc put me on 1000mg XR my liver enzymes went up to 55 (they are supposed to be less than 34). since being reduce to 500mg my enzymes are down to 38...hopefully they will drop more.

------------------
Melissa
23 yrs old
PCOS Dx 6/01
Diabetes II Dx 03/02
Glucophage 500 mg 3/02
bcp 12/01
Spiro 50 mg 1/02
Weight 194/189/120
A-1 Hemoglobin 4.6
Elevated liver enzymes
Yahoo ID: sabrewylds
AIM ID: CMORNINGLIGHT
email: mcurry@nc.rr.com

RachRN · 05-23-2002, 09:18 AM

Michelle,

It's been a LONG time since I've ventured to the diabetes board...

I would tell you this...Liver enzymes do not raise because you are FAT. Liver enzymes may raise because of stress added to the liver, or because of certain foods/drinks that you consume, or if there is some kind of liver failure going on. There are some other reasons that liver enzymes can be elevated but in all the reading I've done..FAT is NOT one of the reasons.

I would ask for a copy of your baseline liver enzymes. If before you started MET your enzymes were normal, and now they are elevated...I think I would ask to have them checked frequently, but if they continue to rise...I'd go OFF met and find another antidiabetic drug to help control your diabetes.

Met is particularly tough on the liver because your liver is a storehouse for sugar. Your body is used to your routine and in a normal person (someone not on MET) when you don't eat for a while, your body stimulates the liver to pump out glucose into your blood stream so that you can maintain blood sugar levels. This is fine for someone that is not insulin resistant or diabetic...but in those of us that are fortunate enough to have these complications...we have no way to get rid of that extra sugar, so our blood sugar levels rise anyway...Met works on the liver to prevent it from pumping out extra sugar. So, you can see why it is tough on the liver, and...if your liver enzymes are elevated it might be time to re-think that situation.

I am upset that your RE booted you out with your DX of diabetes. Diabetic women can get pregnant and carry babies too. Maybe, your RE should have told you to take some time off to get your sugars under control and learn to manage your sugars...but to give you the BOOT is really sad.....

And...if you are seeing an ENDO that will fire you if you don't lose weight....maybe losing the ENDO will be a good thing...I hate judgmental doctors...And I HATE doctors that say, "LOSE WEIGHT" without giving you a plan as to how to do that....Some people are judgmental and in my opinion they are LOSERS...

Anyway...there are other drugs on the market for diabetes that are not as tough on the liver....They are not the "optimum" drug for PCOS people, but if my liver enzymes were elevated...that would be my first priority ...to control the liver while somehow controlling my blood sugars...I hope that this makes sense. Please feel free to PM me or E-mail me if you have questions, because..I'm not good about reading all these boards sometimes..

Good luck and {{hugs}}

I know that you are going through lots of stress on the adoption front too.....high stress causes a rise in blood sugars....take it easy on yourself...

Rach

ElaineCM · 05-31-2002, 12:27 PM

I was on 1500mg of met daily for five years. In december of 2001 my enzyms skyrocketed to over 100. Med were discontinued. Nothing was said to me about my weight causing the elevation just the met. Honestly if it was my weight my PCP would have told me because she is also nagging me about it. My RE agreed. So I think it is the met not the wieght. I am currently 280lbs and off the met - my liver is back to normal!