Re: metformin and hypoglycemia
From: Char (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:26:40 -0500 (CDT)
I used to experience horrible hypoglycemic episodes in the
mid-afternoons. I would have sudden "attacks" of shaking, sweating,
weakness all over my body especially in my legs, and then a migraine
headache would set in. When I started taking glucophage, those episodes
disappeared immediately.
I would get the episodes back now and then, not as bad, but just a
little bit. I found that by making some adjustments to my diet,
combined with the glucophage, the episodes then went away completely. I
only get them now if I go too long without eating.
I also discovered that too many carbs or too little carbs, either one,
could aggravate the hypoglycemia, so it took awhile for me to experiment
with a diet plan that keeps me in balance.
Bottom line, without the glucophage, there is no way I'd have my
hypoglycemia problem under control.
Note: When I switched to Met when it came out, all my hypoglycemia
episodes and IR symptoms began to return within a week. I switched back
to glucophage, and everything got better again.
Hope this helps.
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...)
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