Re: All those taking Metformin .........
From: jodi (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue, 27 Nov 2001 15:30:22 -0600 (CST)
Samuel Thatcher says, with regard to fasting insulin levels, that
"usually levels over 20 are associated with insulin resistance and
levels under 10 are normal. We use 14 uU/ml as a cut off point of
normal." He also says that a fasting glucose to insulin ration that is
less than 4.5 is suggestive of insulin resistance. I guess maybe
"associated with" and "suggestive" are the key words... he doesn't say
for SURE you can tell... :-)
I personally only had a fasting sugar/insulin ration drawn... never did
the tolerance test. My insulin was 19, my glucose was 82... my doctor
gave me met without any further testing. At that time, I was 160 and
5'4, so not enormously overweight...
They have found met to work in women with PCOS who didn't test as IR...
and they have found met to work in women who are thin... I think it
might depend as much on how with it your doctor is. I've seen some
pretty out of it doctors in my time... i.e., the gynocologist who told
me I couldn't possibly have PCOS because I wasn't severely obsese... ha
ha ha...
- jodi
At Tue, 27 Nov 2001, Sonnet wrote:
>
>A fasting glucose test won't tell you whether or not you are IR, though.
>It will only tell you whether or not you're diabetic. (I had this
>trouble with my doctors in Australia, btw - every time I mentioned the
>IR thing to them they would promptly check my blood sugar, see that it
>was fine or slightly low, and dismiss me entirely!)
>
>I think though that you may have something with the overweight
>connection. Even though we know Met is good for treating PCOS whether
>or not you show up as IR or ar overweight or slender, I think us big
>girls get the prescriptions for it more often. Maybe they look at us
>and assume that there MUST be something metabolic going on in there, or
>our case is worse, or something? DOctors are frustrating!!
>
>At Tue, 27 Nov 2001, UK wrote:
>>
>>Just a quick question ....
>>
>>Did you have a fasting glucose test before being prescribed Metformin to
>>check if you are Insulin Resistant ?
>>
>>Some doctors are saying that Met only works if you are IR, yet they
>>prescribed it for me without testing if I was IR.
>>
>>Also, do you think that weight makes a difference as to whether Met is
>>prescribed ?
>>I wonder if the more overweight you are, the more likely they are to let
>>you try Met.
>>
>>Would be interested to hear peoples opinions.
>>
>>Thanks
>>Gem
>
>--
>Sonnet Fitzgerald, PCOS Association, Online Community Liaison. Email: sonnet@pcosupport.org
>
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