Metformin and Hairloss????

[jolie85]

Hello,


I am writing to see if anyone has experienced hair loss/hair thining after starting metformin. I have always had very thick, full hair and after 4 months on metformin, when I go to pull my hair back I look half bald on my sides. I have never experienced anything like this before, and when I called my Dr's office they said hair loss is not a side effect. I don't know what to do. Has anyone stopped medication over this?? Did your hair grow back? Should I call a dermatologist?!?!

Thank you!

Jolie

[faithneverfailing]

Jolie-Hair loss isnt a common side effect for Met but it is VERY common for PCOS unfortunately. Do you see an endocrinologist or just a regular PCP becuase that makes a big difference. Im sorry your dealing with this

[faithneverfailing]

sorry I reposted on the wrong thread....

[Zolt Bolt]

Jolie, I have lost a LOT of hair on met. I know others on the board have as well. I stopped taking the met and my hair has grown back! I noticed it more so on regular met than the extended release. my doctor said i might be sensitive to met and lowered my dose to 500mg 2x a day. she put me back on the extended release...however, i haven't taken it! just can't deal with all the hair loss! i'm sorry...i know it's rough!

[jolie85]

Hi. Thank you for your responses. I can't believe that it is due to the PCOS because I've had PCOS for several years and nothing like this has ever happened. It just seems a little to coincidental that a few months after starting Metformin this happened. I googled Metformin and hair loss and noticed I'm not alone. I called my Dr. and the nurse I spoke with said hair loss is not a side effect of Metformin. I don't buyt it.

Zotlot----How long did it take your hair to grow back?? Did you do anything to help facillitate?

[Zolt Bolt]

Jolie, as soon as I stopped taking Met, my hair stopped falling out. I've had PCOS symptoms for a long while with no hair loss. The hair loss began when I started taking Met. I take Biotin (when I remember), that's about it. It's growing back...I have tons of little baby hairs sticking out everywhere. It will just take time to grow out and fill in everywhere. I wasn't losing weight on Met, I was losing hair...and my anxiety was more so on Met. We aren't trying to have a baby right now, so for me, I just didn't see the point of taking it and losing hair with no benefit. My blood sugar is fine as well. I did ovulate on it, so when we start trying, I will go back on it.

You know you body. That's what I've learned from ALL of this. The Met was making my hair fall out. My endo would ask me if I was using new shampoo/conditioner or hair products...which no, I wasn't. It was the Met...not the PCOS. I have PCOS and it's not falling out now, only when I take Met.

I would try a different Met, or talk about lowering your dosage. My most recent endo said I was most likely sensitive to Met...so she lowered my dose to 1000mg (500 mg twice a day) It's the extended release. I noticed a LOT of hair loss when I was on 1500mg (500mg 3 times a day) of the regular met.

[Zolt Bolt]

Sorry, to clarify on my above post...my endo said I could be sensitive to the met and lowered my dose...but I never started the lower dose, I just stopped taking it. So I don't know if the lower dose would help. I was too frustrated to find out b/c I was losing my hair! I may start the lower dosage just to see if it works.

[jolie85]

Thank you for responding ZoltBolt! About how long did it take for your hair to grow back, do you remember? This is SO frustrating!!

[Zolt Bolt]

Jolie, I know it is VERY frustrating! I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this! I'm not sure if you are asking how long it took it all to grow back...or just when I started to notice new growth. So I'll answer both...

My hair stopped falling out almost immediately after stopping Met. I noticed new growth a short while after.

It has by no means completely grown out yet. I have new growth hairs sprouting out everywhere. I notice them the most at the front of my head b/c they are so much shorter than my bangs and they won't lay down.

Keep in mind your hair only grows on average about 0.5 inch a month and 6 inches per year...so it's unfortunately a slow and gradual process.

Again, everyone's situations are different. I spoke with my doctor and she told me I don't need to take the Met. I'm not pre-diabetic...my blood sugar is fine. I need to lose about 15 pounds, but I'm going to try to do that on my own. My side effects to Met were just not worth it to me. (I'm highly anxious too and it was completely intensifying that by lowering my blood sugar).

I can tell you it made me feel instantly better just to see the hair loss stop. That, to me was the most frustrating, maddening and depressing...the constant hair loss and that it wouldn't stop.

If it IS the Met making your hair fall out. The good news is, it will stop when you stop taking it and it WILL grow back.

I do believe PCOS has thinned my hair out...it's not what it once was....but again, if I can lose some weight the symptoms should disappear some. Now to just lose the weight!

[aynie]

Im into met too and my hair is thinning. I read the thread and found that I'm in the same situation. Can B vitamins help too?

[SmoothiesQueen]

I was excited to find this thread. I've had PCOS most my life, am twenty four. I started taking Metformin a little over a year ago. Up until that point...despite my PCOS...I had the thickest head of hair ever. Gradually my hair begin to fall out...at first around the part line and then thinning in general. I to wondered about the Metformin. I'm on 2000 mg but because I live in a foriegn country right now, I'd had to self diagnose myself. I lost over a hundred pounds since starting Metformin...combined with diet and exercise and actually just started the insulite laboratories program. I assume I am insulin resistant due to having every sign of it...and not being able to lose weight really before I started the Metformin. Now its fairly easy to lose.

I know that doctors say Metformin shouldn't make your hair fall out, but how the heck else do you explain it???

[Anais99]

Hi Smoothiesqueen, it is indeed probably the met that makes you loose hair but FYI I was always told that losing a lot of weight would do too: and a 100 pounds i a lot ! Congrats by the way

[SmoothiesQueen]

Thank you Anais99! I sometimes wonder if there will be an end...like it seems like its slowing down, hard to tell. Sometimes if you pull on the hair to test it..none comes out....sometimes two or three come out. But I also cut it, so hard to tell if thats why. In the beginning it was falling out like crazy.

I thought about going off metformin, especially since I'm also on the insulite system. But afraid to because the results weight wise have been remarkable. Hoping at some point this is all going to settle down and my hair will grow back. But see so few people claiming that their hair grew back...very scary!

[Vanessie]

Hi all, I know it's an old thread but I wanted to comment on this as well. I just started on metformin a little over a month ago. I've always had a crazy amount of hair. Full of body and volume (it actually annoyed me because it could never be flat), and even though I dont wash my hair every day, last week a couple days after not washing my hair I was pulling it up into a pony tail and I could feel it was thinner. I freaked out. I also just recently changed shampoo to a more natural free of chemicals, so I am hoping it's just that change. Because I am not near anybody close to me that could actually gauge a difference, I am going to keep taking the meds until thanksgiving and have my mom observe... if she does notice a noticeable hair loss, I'm going to slowly start taking less metformin. I've basically transformed my life and from a sedentary lifestyle, and often skipping meals, I am making sure I never skip meals and always exercise. Did the hair for everybody else here grow back after stopping metformin?

[curlywurly]

I'm in the same boat. I've always have had really thick hair and once I started met it started falling out. The first month I was on met was the worst I was in the bathroom all day. So I just passed it off as poor nutrition because everything I ate went threw me as fast as I ate it. Once I got that side effect controlled my hair is still falling out. I was seeing a PCP for this and finally got a recommendation to a endo that I've been waiting 3 months to see!(I'm going next week) I even told my PCP that I'm concerned that I might have a vitamin deficiency because of the Met and asked her if I should get tested. A simple google search of met & hairloss that it could be a B12 deficiency. She looked up the side effects of the drug and it's not listed, which I already know I also know that not all side effects are listed for drugs. I also told her if I only took half a dose falls out less it's still more than normal but not as bad as the full dose. When I was on vacation I didn't take it because I knew we'd drinking and I didn't want to mix met with alcohol and the entire week my hair did not fall out at all. She said I could try taking half a dose but she didn't think it will really give me any results. The first two months I still got AF but not yet this month. I hope I get more answers next week I'd really like to get off of met because my hair falling out all the time is super stressful. I've also noticed the texture of my hair isn't like what it use to be like. It used to be soft and silky and now it's dry & rough. It's very frustrating every time you brush your hair you literally have a hand full of hair in your brush & hands. Or having to clean up all the hairs up off the floor after brushing it.