Taking Metformin during pregnancy

Kimturk · 08-15-2006, 08:16 PM

I am 16 weeks pregnant and taking metformin 2 times a day (1 pill per time). I was pregnant in February and on metformin then told to stop as soon as i found out so i did we miscarried 9 weeks later.

So now this time i told both my doctors i wanted to stay on it i have heard sooo many good things about it. So now i am on it and i am scared to ask them what they think when i should come off it. I need some real experiences here to go by.

If you needed metfomrin during your pregnancy how long did you take it for? How much did you take? When did your doctors what you to quit it?

Any advice would be apreciated.

Thanks

Kim

middleschoolteach · 08-15-2006, 08:22 PM

I conceived on 1000 mg met as well. I was told by my doc to stop it at 12 weeks, and I am now almost 17.5 weeks and all is well. I have heard of other women on this board who are taking met throughout their pregnancies.
Doctors differ on their opinions of how long a woman should be on it.

mlbarry · 08-15-2006, 08:25 PM

I am really not going to be much help but thought I would throw in my 2 cents! I am not pg and am not ttc, however, when I started Met my dr. told me it was something that I would take during pregnancy. Good luck and I hope you have a happy and healthy 9 months.

flsy97 · 08-15-2006, 10:52 PM

Kim,
I too have had concerns about this. I had a son 5 years ago. I started Met 500 mg one month before I conceived and stopped it immediately. I never got back on the Met and had 3 mc's last year.
However, I started Met again this past Jan and we conceived in July. I basically told my doctor that I wanted to stay on it, because I had researched and found that it was more dangerous to come off of it once pg. begins. He agreed. Met. helps to maintain so many things that are important during pregnancy. I'm 6 weeks at this point and so far so good. I'm almost too scared to come off of it at any point because I'm afraid my body will freak out!
Hope this helps! It's really just my 2 cents worth.

Kimturk · 08-15-2006, 11:03 PM

flsy97,

Sorry to hear about your miscarriages. I know the doctors really wanted me to try again without it but my husband and i have waited 3 years after we got married (7 years together total) to start having children i didn't want to have to go through more miscarriages and i already had a prescription for like 6 months worth (3 times a day) so i basically told them i wanted to be on it and if they said no i would use the pills i already had and i needed to know how many to take. They then understood what was going on and how much my husband and i want children.

He told me to take 3 pills a day until i found out i was pregnant and go town to 2 times a day but never said when to stop. I am now 16 weeks and happy to stay on it no problem at all i am SOOOOOOOOOO scared to stop it now. I have already had a scare with cramping and bleeding at 14 weeks that ended me up in the ER and everything turned out OK i have had like 3 ultrasounds in the past 16 weeks to make sure everything was ok and everything was perfect. I highly suggest for your sanity to ask for an ultrasound at 8 weeks (most doctors will do it espcially if past miscarriages). It was the best thing i did although they could not give me a picture (way too small) i got to see the heartbeat and everything was where it was suppose to be it calmed my nerves alot.

I don't want my body to freak when i go off the metformin eithr and i am scared it will so its like do you wean off of it or just cold turkey. I know there was a bunch of girls here who used it all the way through and some who didn't i was hoping they could give us some insit into what their docs said. I am going to my doc on the 22nd and i might get the courage up to ask him what he suggests and then talk to him about it then. My biggest thing is i am worried about the elevated insulin levels since i am insulin resistant!. I guess we will wait and see

Sorry for the long post i am at work and doign too many things which makes me ramble lol lol lol.

Kim

jenpalmer71 · 08-15-2006, 11:17 PM

kim....my doc told me to stop taking it immediately but I didn't. I have read way too much about the benefits to consider it. Now this was just my general doctor....I haven't seen the OB yet..that is on the 31st. I will stress to him how important it is to me and even if it is against his wishes I will continue to take it. I just need to know how far in advance before a c-section I have to stop taking it. I do not want to get gestational diabetes and research shows that taking met may stop that from occuring.

xmasgirl · 08-15-2006, 11:30 PM

I took it all throughout my pg with my DS and I truly believe it was the Met along with the progestrone suppositories that made me not m/c. I am also still taking my Met with this pg and so far all is well. I would say it's your baby and your body and there is no proof that Met has any negative effects on a pg. My son turned out just fine happy and healthy. The only thing I have heard is sometimes the baby can be born with a little lower blood sugar level than normal, but my DS blood sugar was tested at birth and it was just fine. Good luck and I hope you make the right decision that is right for you.

Noelle

Carpathia01 · 08-15-2006, 11:56 PM

Hi, I got pregnant with my daughter while taking 2,000 mg a day. I kept taking it for the first trimester even though my endocrinologist and my ob/gyn didn't think I needed it. I tapered off slowly, I didn't stop suddenly, at about 12 weeks. (I am pregnant again but since I wasn't taking metformin this time when I got pregnant, I don't feel like I "need" it - fingers crossed!). I have no regrets about continuing to take it with my daughter
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Hope this helps!!!

FluffyBurgerSniffer · 08-16-2006, 12:16 AM

I'm going to actually start taking Met tomorrow and I'll finish taking it slowly getting off of it at 12weeks.

sassy82 · 08-16-2006, 12:24 AM

My doctor told me to keep taking it until 14 weeks. I asked if I can stay on it and he said that I could if I wanted to. I hear that it can lower the risk of Gestational Diabetes!

MikesHAPPYwife · 08-16-2006, 02:12 AM

Alot of doctors will stop you at 12-14 wks. However, if you are IR it is important that you stay on it through your whole pregnancy. I have stayed on it and I am hoping it will preven GD. Without MET my blood sugar levels vary to much.

smedleysttc03 · 08-16-2006, 03:53 AM

I asked two of my obs and they both agreed that my chances are better that I stay on it throughout my pregnancy! I am taking 2550mgs and am 22wks with twins...seems to have done its job!~Jess

LaurAnnHere · 08-16-2006, 04:00 AM

Here's the article I always share when this topic comes up. I really think that women should stay on it.

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Quote:

Diabetes Drug Helps Prevent Miscarriage

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Charlotte Mathis, MD

March 1, 2002 -- A popular diabetes drug may hold the key to motherhood for millions of women with the most common form of infertility. Miscarriage rates dropped dramatically among a group of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) treated with the drug metformin.

Researchers say the drug, also known as Glucophage, is also highly effective in preventing gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that is common in pregnant women with PCOS, and may be a better treatment than insulin for all women with pregnancy-related diabetes.

"This therapy is rapidly revolutionizing the treatment of infertility, and with good reason," says Charles Glueck, MD, who conducted some of the first metformin infertility studies and has treated almost 1,500 women with the syndrome. "In women with PCOS the risk of miscarriage is very high, around 50%. By giving metformin, the risk is reduced to that of a woman without PCOS."

It is believed that up to 10% of Caucasian women in the U.S., and 15% of Hispanic and black women have PCOS, although most have not been diagnosed. Women with the syndrome often have irregular or absent menstrual periods, elevated insulin levels (similar to people with type 2 diabetes), and weight problems. Many women with PCOS do not ovulate at all, and those who get pregnant often have miscarriages.

Metformin is approved for treating type 2 diabetes, but it is being used off-label by an increasing number of infertility specialists to treat PCOS-related infertility. Many doctors in the U.S. take women off the drug once they become pregnant, but the new research suggests they should keep taking it during pregnancy.

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers reviewed the histories of 65 pregnant women with PCOS who were taking metformin prior to conception and throughout their pregnancy and 31 pregnant women with PCOS who did not take the drug. The women were patients at a fertility clinic in Caracas, Venezuela, and they were treated over a four and a half year period.

Roughly 9% of the women who took the drug miscarried (six of 65), compared with 42% of women who did not (13 of 31). Among the women in each group who had a history of miscarriage, the rate of pregnancy loss was 11% for those receiving treatment and almost 60% for those not treated. The research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health.

The study offers the best evidence yet that metformin may be useful for the treatment of gestational diabetes, says lead author John E. Nestler, MD, of the Medical College of Virginia. Insulin sensitivity improved for the pregnant women on metformin, compared with their sensitivity prior to pregnancy when not taking the drug.

"Normally, insulin sensitivity gets worse during pregnancy, and that is why some women get gestational diabetes," Nestler tells WebMD. "We found just the opposite with these women. Insulin sensitivity actually got better in the treated women. This is very exciting evidence that this drug can be useful in preventing gestational diabetes."

Glueck, who is director of the Cholesterol Center in Cincinnati, is presenting even stronger evidence in a study scheduled for publication in the March issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility. The incidence of gestational diabetes in that study was just 3% among pregnant patients with PCOS taking metformin, compared with an incidence of 40% for patients not taking the drug.

The findings, Glueck says, suggest that metformin may have a role in preventing not just gestational diabetes, but type 2 diabetes that is not related to pregnancy.

"We know that 80% of women who develop gestational diabetes with go on to develop type 2 diabetes," he says. "In fact, gestational diabetes is an accelerated model for how most people develop type 2 diabetes. The fact that we can reduce the incidence of gestational diabetes in PCOS so dramatically tells us that metformin may reduce the risk of diabetes in other high-risk people."

Echobelly · 08-16-2006, 04:08 PM

This is my first pg, and I was really confused as to what to do about taking my Met! I had only been on Met for about 3 months before becoming pg, but I'm positive that it helped regularize my insulin levels.

After I found out I was pg, my doctor asked me to stay on it for first trimester only, because it has been known to decrease the rate of m/c. After that, she asked me to taper off...

I didn't really want to taper off, particularly because it had helped me that far in my pg. At the same time, while there weren't any studies proving that Met is harmful, there isn't anything that proves it's harmLESS, either.

It was a tough decision for me, but I decided to come off - for better or for worse! I guess being med-free for my baby feels good right now. If I contract GD, I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there...but I'm also confident that regular exercise and a healthy diet will go a long way in helping to stave off GD risks.

Good luck with your decision!

trupples · 08-16-2006, 08:43 PM

I have been taking MET for 3+ years at this point. I am 13 weeks along and met with a Maternal-Fetal Specialist today regarding the whole MET during pregnancy question. She said that I should discontinue it as I passed the critical first trimester. She also said that if I were to develop GD, that MET is not the choice of medication to be on. Like the rest of you, I am concerned about the effects of going off the MET. Aready had m/c this year (on MET).~Tracy