Re: pcos and insulin resistance; to Minni
From: Sonnet (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Thu, 20 Dec 2001 20:02:02 -0600 (CST)
Hi Minni -
I posted this just yesterday on the PCOS forum here at OBGYN.net, it
might help you make some decisions about Metformin and maybe can help
you explain to your doctor what's going on. I'm sure some of it will be
review for you but I thought I'd post the whole thing anyway!
Getting our insulin levels lower and our hormones back in balance is so
important for our health. It bugs me when doctors treat PCOS like it's
just "women's trouble" and consider it fixed if they can restore normal
menses. If your doctor isn't willing to treat you, by all means find a
new doctor! They're out there and they're slowly growing in number. Good
luck.
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"PCOS, it is now thought by most physicians and researchers, is caused
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by a fault in how the cells in our body respond to insulin. This is
--
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called insulin resistance.
In "normal" people, insulin is the hormone that lets glucose from the
blood pass through our cell walls into the cells to be used for energy.
It also stores extra glucose as fat. Our pancreas prduces insulin in
response to how much glucose we have in our blood.
In people with IR / PCOS, our cells don't "recognize" our insulin very
well, and only a fraction of the glucose gets through. Then the
pancreas sees that glucose is building up in our blood, and pumps out
more and more insulin to compensate. Eventually all of the glucose gets
into the cells, but using lots more insulin than normal.
All of that extra insulin floating around in our bodies starts throwing
thigns off. Insulin is a hormone and it interacts with several other
parts of our enocrine system. For our purposes with PCOS, the main ones
are the ovaries and their hormone production, and the adrenals.
This is a complex process and I can point you towards more literature on
it if you like, but the end result is that the excess insulin causes our
bodies to produce high levels of testosterone, DHEAS and others, while
producing low amounts of progesterone. This hormone imbalance causes
the ovarian cysts, as well as the other symptoms like weight gain, acne,
and facial hair.
SO, we are given insulin sensitizing drugs - which originally were used
only to treat diabetes - because they help our cells recognize our
insulin. That lowers the level that our pancreas churns out, and that
helps resolve the hormone problems that we have.
You can acheive much of the same effect in your body by eating low carb.
Since carbohydrates are converted very quickly to blood glucose, they
cause a "spike" in our gucose levels. This causes a corresponding spike
in insulin levels. Staying away from that helps keep those levels
lower."
At Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Minni wrote:
>
>I have a question, I have been diagnosed with PCOS and have been going
>through this for about 10 years. I am now 26 and I have hair growth
>everywhere and it really bothers me. My periods just started coming
>regularly for about the past 4 months. I am just wondering if I should
>go on Metaformin to reduce the hair growth. I just want the hair growth
>to slow down so I can use other methods for hair removal (for example
>laser hair removal). I feel that my hair growth is very fast and
>coarse. My hormone level is high and I just need to know what will
>bring it down. My doctor is saying that I should exercise and watch
>what I eat but I was wondering if there is any other medication that
>will bring my hair growth down to a normal level. I suggested
>Metwformin to him and I don't think he will perscribe Metaformin because
>he thinks it is used for something totally different. I have read about
>people that have had results with it and some that haven't. Any
>information would be helpful.
>
--
Sonnet Fitzgerald, PCOS Association, Online Community Liaison. Email: sonnet@pcosupport.org
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