Re: metformin and hypoglycemia
From: Sonnet (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Wed, 23 Jul 2003 07:45:08 -0500 (CDT)
I had quite severe hypoglycemia before treatment, with blood sugars
occassionally down in the 30's. I had dealt with this since childhood.
I started 1500mg metformin (the Australian version, Diaformin; not sure
how it relates to either generic or brand name in the US) when I was 23
and my hypoglycemic episodes stopped almost overnight. I could suddenly
for the first time in my LIFE go more than 2 hours without eating. It
was an amazing improvement for me! Since moving to the US in 2000 I have
been on Glucophage and find it has the same effect; the generic
metformin here does not. Of course there are other symptom relief
issues too but the hypoglycemia was also for me the MAIN thing I needed
treated. And it worked very well for me, within hours of the first
dose!
I think your endo needs a bullet, btw :)
At Wed, 23 Jul 2003, AH wrote:
>
>For those who used to suffer from hypoglycemia before dealing with IR
>aspects of PCOS, did symptoms subside fairly quickly when going on
>metformin? Of course my low blood sugar symptoms vary according to what
>I have been eating or drinking, but I kind of expected that I would have
>less problems and more energy as a result of metformin, and so far there
>have been no further improvements. I don't really expect anything much
>from this drug unless I get some further reduction in hypoglycemic
>symptoms that are not solely due to being careful with diet. This is
>for me the best indication I would have that it might be working at all.
>I have been on it (generic) about 5 months now at 1500mg per day. The
>only thing is that I have been a bit haphazard about taking it at every
>meal, but I am now being very good. I know it can take months and
>months to work at all, especially if one is not being very very good
>about diet and exercise (and I have been only somewhat good-and
>occasionally outright bad!(I am also on dianette BCP, but I noticed no
>further deterioration of hypoglycemic symptoms after going on it.)
>I will experiment with Glucophage soon as soon as I get my hands on a
>credit card and can buy some online, but surely I may have to try that
>for months before knowing if there is any difference, which means paying
>for 2 lots of drugs, neither of which may work.
>
>So to sum up, did it take anyone ages before they even felt different on
>the met- you know what I mean... (when I asked the endo who prescribed
>me this, if anyone ever said they 'felt better' on the drug, he looked
>at me like I was insane, and said, 'why would they? They feel better if
>they lose weight, but they only lose weight because they've been
>dieting.' Perhaps next time I shall use that dirty word 'hypoglycemia'-
>I think a lot of British docs don't believe in hypoglycemia unless
>you're diabetic. Or perhaps they think you only get it if you've been
>downing some indecent mix of caffeine, sugar and alcohol all day...god
>knows...)
--
email always welcome: sonnet_fitz@hotmail.com
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