Metformin for PCOS: How much do you take?

[srrhc]

Yes I did hear that about poor egg quality too. I spoke with my co worker who took met and she said her doc told her it would make the eggs better 😊

 

[dodgercpkl]

Hello ladies. I started off at 1000 mg and it was rough. I am trying to take 1500 now but my doc said if it is too much to go back down to 1000. Before met my cycles were anywhere from 32-35 days. The first cycle on met I ovulated on cd 15 so it was a 29 day cycle. This month I am on cd 17 and still no positive o. Have any of y'all had that happen? How long should a person stay on met before trying something else if they aren't successful? Sorry for all the questions.

I would definitely try it a year. Even if a dr. gives you clomid before the year is up (which I would highly recommend) I would still take the metformin forever. Metformin is really the only drug you can take for PCOS. You can take other things to make you ovulate and what not, but the metformin works on your entire cycle. I have heard it can take 6 months to really show results. I plan on never stopping the metformin. I have insulin resistance too and it really helps me with that. Insulin resistance and PCOS go hand in hand.

I agree with rdy4number2 I'd give it a bit longer. It took about 3-4 months for it to start showing it's effects on my cycles, granted I wasn't having ANY cycles at that point. That said, while I love what Metformin has helped me accomplish, it's looking like I'm going to have to move away from using it. I'll be discussing it with my RE tomorrow and my Endo at my next appointment with her, but I've found out recently that I have the homozygous MTHFR mutation and that Metformin doesn't play well with it. I have been reading about other things that will do the same thing as Metformin and the reviews have been pretty good so far, so we'll see what the Dr's have to say about it.

I started metformin yesterday, have to take 500mg once a day for two weeks then go up to 1000mg a day after that. Doctor said that way it was less likely to give me an upset stomach. Really hoping it will get me going again, never thought I would want to have af lol

I hope so. Have you talked to your dr about provera to make you start a period? Metformin can take months to regulate the cycle.

No none of the doctors have mentioned provera, maybe it's because of my weight? I know my bmi is currently too high for them to give me clomid.

Your weight should have nothing to do with it. I would definitely ask for it. You must be miserable having your cycle that long. I had a 51 day cycle this last one and I was a wreck. No clomid because of your weight? That's not right. Please try a new dr. You don't deserve to be told that.

Everyone I know who's had clomid and the doctor has said they won't give it to you unless your bmi is 30 or below. The doctor also said that if it did come to needing ivf then your bmi has to be 30 or below too. My bmi is currently a shocking 50 I am very overweight but because I'm so short it makes my bmi worse.

You definitely want to talk to them about jump starting your cycle. I'd recommend asking about and pushing for them to give you Prometrium rather then Provera. They do the same thing, but the Prometrium won't harm an unknown early pregnancy whereas Provera can and likely will cause a miscarriage - that actually happened to a friend of mine recently...

I definitely agree that you should check with another Dr. My OB when I first started all of this ONLY gave me something to jump start my cycle (after 3 months with nothing) because I pestered her about it a bunch. I ended up going to another OB because when she finally gave me something, A) she gave me Provera (which at the time I took because I'd heard a lot of ladies saying they've used it but hadn't researched it on my own yet), and B) she gave it to me ONCE with no continuing prescription and no instructions about how long to wait for my next cycle.

My new OB was galled at the way my old OB treated things. She made sure I understood that I should never go more then 3 months with no cycle because it can be harmful. She gave me a running prescription for Prometrium and advised me that I should take it every 6 weeks if my cycle doesn't start on it's own and pregnancy tests are negative.

As for the clomid thing, that ALSO is very dr dependent. The new OB wanted me to lose some weight first, but having a bmi under 30 wasn't a requirement at all. It was moreso that she wanted me to show that I was truly motivated. To help me lose weight she recommended that I see and Endocrinologist who put me on Metformin and advised me of how and WHY I should be changing my diet to help me lose weight despite the issues of PCOS. I was still at a bmi of 36 (or maybe a bit higher even but I'd lost about 40 pounds since the first appointment) when she gave me a prescription for clomid. I never ended up using it because I found out I was pregnant a week or so after that appointment, but I DID have it.

Sadly I miscarried that baby, but because of that I can say that since that point, my cycles have been back on their own and working well. Now I just need to figure out why I can't seem to carry past 5 weeks...

 

[wanna_bump]

Hi, after reading through most of the posts it seems im on quite a high dosage of met..im taking 1g twice a day..i worked up from starting at 500mg. I had my 1st af last week so its got me wondering if i actually ov'd or not :s good luck to all x

 

[rdy4number2]

Hi, after reading through most of the posts it seems im on quite a high dosage of met..im taking 1g twice a day..i worked up from starting at 500mg. I had my 1st af last week so its got me wondering if i actually ov'd or not :s good luck to all x

So, 2000mg a day. That is what I'm taking too.

 

[dodgercpkl]

Hi, after reading through most of the posts it seems im on quite a high dosage of met..im taking 1g twice a day..i worked up from starting at 500mg. I had my 1st af last week so its got me wondering if i actually ov'd or not :s good luck to all x

So, 2000mg a day. That is what I'm taking too.

Same here.

As to whether you ovulated or not, it's possible either way. Charting or blood tests are the only way to know since you can have an annovulatory cycle in which you do have AF but in which there was no ovulation. I'd say odds are good though that it could indicate that your body is starting to work the way it's suppose to though, so congrats!

 

[wanna_bump]

Hi, after reading through most of the posts it seems im on quite a high dosage of met..im taking 1g twice a day..i worked up from starting at 500mg. I had my 1st af last week so its got me wondering if i actually ov'd or not :s good luck to all x

So, 2000mg a day. That is what I'm taking too.

Same here.

As to whether you ovulated or not, it's possible either way. Charting or blood tests are the only way to know since you can have an annovulatory cycle in which you do have AF but in which there was no ovulation. I'd say odds are good though that it could indicate that your body is starting to work the way it's suppose to though, so congrats!

ah so not that an uncommon dosage then lol! and thanks for answering my question and the vote of confidence x

 

[MildPCOS]

Hi, just curious if you could provide an update. I am in a similar situation where I am now taking Metformin, but I have not had a period since going off the pill that didnt come because of Provera. Did the Metformin work for you?

 

[dodgercpkl]

Hi, just curious if you could provide an update. I am in a similar situation where I am now taking Metformin, but I have not had a period since going off the pill that didnt come because of Provera. Did the Metformin work for you?

How long have you been on the metformin for? Are you overweight and if so have you been working to lose any weight? What's your diet like?

I'm asking those questions because I feel that all of them play a part in getting your cycles back. It took about 4 months of metformin (most of it at a 2000mg/day routine), and 40 pounds lost, and a pretty much complete overhaul of my diet to bring my cycles back.

Do you temp at all? I found that I could see that I ovulated that first month because of charting my temps. I was then proven right by blood tests (I'd actually ovulated for the first time the month before but not strongly enough to bring on more then what I thought was breakaway bleeding) and ultimately by a positive hpt. Sadly I did miscarry, but my cycles have continued to work on their own since then.

 

[bvw]

I have had PCOS for at least 3 months if not more. I found out I had it because my husband and I were trying to conceive our second child. The hardest thing for me is wondering why it had to be me with PCOS when everyone around me was getting pregnant. I also have type 2 diabetes and my doctor for that told me not to take anything for it. The confusing part is I was prescribed Metformin by my obgyn and I don't know if I should take them or not because they are basically diabetes meds. I'm only 21 and I don't want my liver to fail because of the side effects I got from birth control. We really want another baby and its heartbreaking knowing it might not be a possibility!

 

[jessthemess]

I just wanted to correct a mistake in this thread in case others read it in the future.

Provera absolutely does NOT cause miscarriages. Provera is actually often used to prevent miscarriages. Provera is progesterone and miscarriages are often caused by progesterone deficiencies. Provera was actually used as a pregnancy test back in the 50's and 60's.

 

[piglet24]

Hi. This is my first post in this thread. I am 24 years old and we have been TTC for 4 years now. I have been to 4 doctors who treated me like their lab rat. I was first diagnosed with PCOS and my first OB told to that I don't ovulate that's why I had like 3 cycles of clomid all ending up as cysts. Then I opted to try alternative medicine and went to see a acupuncturist. My period became regular after that. After a few months I stopped seeing him as it was getting too expensive. When I stopped, so did my cycle.

Last year, we have finally decided to try IVF. When we had the consultation, the doctor told us to take some lab tests. My husband's lab result was ok. Mine turned out my insulin is very very high. So she prescribed Metformin. I started last December 2013. December 2013 upto January 2014 I didn't have my period but my insulin has already lowered. By February I finally have my period. So I guess my insulin has already reached the normal level coz I had my period? I haven't had my lab test yet because my doctor went for a vacation. I have to wait til end of the month. I am really hoping that I also ovulated. Has anyone tried taking Metformin alone who got pregnant? My dosage by the way is 1500 mg per day.