Metformin Success in Thin Patients?

wmoody · 03-31-2009, 04:08 PM

Can anyone share their Metformin success stories with me? I was diagnosed with PCOS in October. I have tried 3 rounds of Clomid and did ovulate on the 3rd round after taking the Ovidrel shot, but I did not get pregnant. I am about to start Metformin but am concerned because I am already thin (BMI 21). I have excellent cholesterol and triglyceride levels and normal glucose. In fact- all of my hormones/labs have been normal. I was diagnosed from an ultrasound + not having periods. I just can't imagine that I have insulin resistance. Can anyone with a similar situation let me know if Metformin had any positive effect on their cycles?

Thank you!

DD56 · 03-31-2009, 11:36 PM

I'm in a similar situation (but a little heavier BMI-22.5), but don't know how the metformin is going to work since I just started it about a week ago. I also did several rounds of clomid with no success. I guess we'll see.

MissCET · 04-01-2009, 05:45 PM

I was diagnosed in September with PCOS and was put on Met in December. I had had no periods for 1 year, was losing hair and my skin was terrible. The main reason i took a long time to get diagnosed was because i was underweight!
I was unsure whether Met was the right treatment but it has worked wonders for me. Within 2 months my periods returned and my PCOS symptoms practically disappeared. I have been on for 6 months now and it has made a huge difference to my life.

I really wish you the best of luck and hope it works as well for you. x

SageSelig · 04-01-2009, 06:19 PM

I was diagnosed with pcos in nov. after ultrasound and no AF as well. I started taking met in Jan after an attempt to try things naturally - acupuncture and diet changes. I lost 10 lbs after starting met (I am 5'3" and now 117 lbs) and had a horrible time with side effects - EXTREMELY tired, headaches, body aches, felt depressed, lightheaded. I stopped a couple of weeks ago with no signs of AF, but feel better again. I wish I could say that I had success, but am now going to try taking prometrium and see if that gets me to ovulate. Good luck!

DD56 · 04-02-2009, 12:09 AM

oh yeah, I'm tolerating the metformin pretty much fine so far, it took about 2 weeks to ramp up to the full dose. I first tried getting to the full dose too fast, and it made me pretty sick.

bkb2008 · 04-02-2009, 02:04 PM

Just to pitch in my two cents: I'm not IR and started with a relatively normal BMI of 21 and I started Met in early/ mid Feb this year ramping up from 500mg to 1500mg/ day over a few weeks. (Nausea took a while to get used to but I dropped a bit of weight, now BMI's 19.7-20) Cycle in Feb was normal and judging from temps, I may have O'd. It didn't really affect me otherwise.

RE then started me on clomid in mid March, and while O hasn't been confirmed yet (going to clinic this Fri to find out), my largest follicle was 24 on Monday and I saw the EWCM plus higher temperatures over the last two days. Will find out on Friday with temping, u/s and bloodwork and that'll start my 2ww hopefully.

wmoody: You might already have read this, but met does take a few months to kick in (like 3-4mths) coz it takes your body some time to acclimatize. It also aparently helps CC-resistant people so if you've been on clomid but didn't respond, it might help in tadem. (One reference cited quite a few times on this forum is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?log$=activity) Good luck and baby dust!!!

kimm · 04-02-2009, 02:09 PM

I don't measure IR in blood tests, but did notice that I'd get really hypoglycemic if I didn't eat for a while. From what I've read this can be a sign of IR too.

A doctor of mine thinks that the bloodtests for IR in our group are pretty useless.

I've been taking fortamet since Oct 08 and they hypoglycemia is gone and my testosterone has dropped as well.

My last two cycles were also 29 days!

So I do think it's a worthwhile thing to try.

wmoody · 04-02-2009, 05:35 PM

Thanks for all the replies. I'm starting Metformin XR on Sunday at 500 mg/day and working up to 2000 mg/day over 4 weeks. I think the plan is to try Clomid again in May after I get up to the full dose of Metformin. Hopefully my side effects will be minimal. I've been reading A LOT and I have a lot of hope now that this medicine will work.

ttcincal · 04-02-2009, 06:23 PM

wmoody, I'm curious to see how it works with you. I hope it does the trick.

I am thin and my glucose and cholestrol are normal. But I would love to try metformin. Neither ob/gyn wanted to give it to me. I'm meeting with an RE in May, and I will talk to him about it.

Claireg · 04-03-2009, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissCET

I was diagnosed in September with PCOS and was put on Met in December. I had had no periods for 1 year, was losing hair and my skin was terrible. The main reason i took a long time to get diagnosed was because i was underweight!
I was unsure whether Met was the right treatment but it has worked wonders for me. Within 2 months my periods returned and my PCOS symptoms practically disappeared. I have been on for 6 months now and it has made a huge difference to my life.

I really wish you the best of luck and hope it works as well for you. x

what dose of met were you on, as you have very similar symptoms to me?

thanks

TrishainAZ · 04-11-2009, 09:50 PM

I think I can give you some success stories with Met! I'm pregnant with my 4th now. For the first 3 it took me 3-4 months on met to get pregnant and less than a month the 4th time. I've been a range of weights, but I was 107 and 5'4.5" when I got pregnant with #2 (met likely did cause some weightloss, but it doesn't always) I take regualr Met and have been on a range of dosages.. 1500, 2750 (probalby why I got so skinny that time!), 2000 and 2000 respectively. Good luck!

TrishainAZ · 04-11-2009, 09:52 PM

Oh and I've never been tested for IR, my doctor prescribes it regardless... says the tests are unreliable anyway.

Rhhzee · 04-13-2009, 03:20 AM

My BMI is 20 and I've been on Metformin 250mg three times a day for 5 months and on my 5th round of Clomid 50mg. I ovulated 4 out of the 5 rounds and have 30 day cycles since starting Metformin/Clomid but still have BFN every month. Male factor infertility was ruled out. I tried to up the Metformin but got hypoglycemic on 500mg. I do not have insulin resistance and got diagnosed by ultrasound with PCOS. I had a hsg 3 mos ago which was normal along with IUI x 2 in Dec '08 and Jan'09. Starting to lose hope here as I've been ttc for nearly 3 yrs now.

Nina09 · 04-13-2009, 04:54 AM

I am dying to try Met. Since stopping Spiro while ttc my acne has been so horrible

. When I mentioned it to my obgyn she didn't seem too thrilled about the idea (my bmi is 21) and suggested I go on BC for 2 months...which I have decided not to do because BCPs make me feel loopy! I am meeting with her next week and am going to mention it again. It has been so hard dealing with these skin issues on top of the infertility and I just want my self-confidence back!

Goose00 · 04-13-2009, 02:35 PM

Nina09, Met has helped my acne. I have struggled with it for most of my life and I did notice it got worse after I went off bcp. I've been on Met for 6 months now and I'm to the point where I don't even need topical acne meds.

And in response to the main question of this thread, I would like to share that my BMI is 20.5, my glucose is excellent, and I'm not IR, and I don't think I lost more than a pound or two on Met. But I've seen at lot of sucess. I just ovulated on Saturday for the third time since January. Now I am on my 2WW and am hoping and praying that this is the month I finally get my BFP!