Metformin for PCOS -- experiences?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Who here has been on metformin to treat PCOS, and what have your experiences been? Mainly I want to know what has it done for thinning hair (OMG please say it’s stopped thinning or even --dare I hope-- grown back!), skin, unwanted body/facial hair, weight, etc. Also, are you taking any other meds or supplements that might affect these things, too, or are you just on metformin?

My story – I’ve had PCOS for years but have never treated it directly since:

a) due to family history of cancer incurred by hormonal replacement therapy, I can’t take birth control pills***, which I always thought were the only treatment option
and
b) honestly, I really like not having a period every month. I have gotten more regular in the past few years for some mysterious reason, but it’s still not every 28 days. Sometimes I’m late by two weeks or even a month. I used to be super lucky and only have 2-4 periods a year. (Fortunately for me, I don’t want children.)

Then I learned about metformin being used for PCOS as a non-hormonal treatment, but thought you have to be diabetic or pre-diabetic to take it (not true, I just found out). And then, in the past year or so I’ve noticed my hair on my head is thinning in typical PCOS-fashion, and while I can handle unwanted facial hair with electrolysis, I can’t handle the thought of losing my head hair. :eek:

So I hied myself to an endocrinologist last week and today am on my first dose of metformin (extended release; 500 mg/day for a week, then 1000 mg/day from then on). I was warned about the stomach upset side-effects, but so far my stomach is just feeling midly upset enough to draw my attention there, but no more. Hoping this is as bad as it gets (it’s not even bad).

Also hoping that it makes my hair grow back (oh PLEASE) and makes me lose weight more easily and then keep it off without the extreme vigilance currently necessary. Regular periods would be nice (I guess) since that will reduce the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer. The lowered risk of breast cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease are nice, too. :slight_smile:

E: ***I just read this article, which states

which is not what my doctors and my mother’s oncologists told me, hence why I’m not allowed to be on birth control. This is interesting…

2

I have no idea what PCOS is – I take metformin for diabetes. When I started, it geve me moderate diarrhia for several days, but that stopped. The pill also has an odd licorice-like smell to it, though I’ve seen online comments that say is smells like fish.

That’s all I can tell you

3

I take it. I don’t know what it does, no one has ever explained. Other than I told a doc that I eat well and exercise and don’t ever lose weight (when I was conciously eating well and exercising. Now I just eat to stay alive and exercise). It didn’t help me lose weight. I still have to pluck my chin. I wouldn’t know about hair loss - I have more than my fair share of hair. It does fall out like crazy but not in a noticeable way.

When I first started taking it I was sick as a dog, and I got hives. For some reason my doc didn’t think that was a side effect? I read online about others who had a lot of stomach upset and they took the XR (extended release) so I got on that and I’ve been fine.

No one has ever explained to me what it should be doing for me or why I should take it. But I’m super fat and have PCOS and not diabetic so I guess that is why I am on it. I take 2000mg a day.

I take the pill too, with hormones in it. And I manage to get my period even though I take it continuously. So fuck all that.

4

I’ve been taking Metformin for almost a year to stabilize my blood sugar and I have lost a lot of weight. Before, my blood sugar would swing wildly up and down throughout the day, and I’d get so hungry when it went down that I’d eat anything in sight. Now, it stays very steady, and I’m able to stick to a ~1200 calorie a day eating plan. So, Metformin didn’t literally make me lose weight, but it did help me to eat less. I don’t have PCOS, so I can’t speak to that, but you did ask about the weight loss effect.

I had almost zero problems with stomach upset or diarrhea.

5

Good to know that the stomach problems it can cause aren’t too bad and go away. Right now I feel fine, so if what I felt this morning is the worse it ever gets, this is really good news.

My endocrinologist said that metformin may help my hair stop thinning, and there is a smaller chance it may help it grow back, but since hair growth is on a 6-9 month cycle, it will take at least that long for me to notice any changes. The good news is that the hair loss is not really visible to others unless I point it out (it’s mainly the hair by my temples that’s thinning).

6

I was put on it by a fertility specialist, who worked very hard–and stretched the diagnostic boundaries–to diagnose me with PCOS, and put me on Metformin to treat the hormonal imbalance it was supposedly causing.

I do have reactive hypoglycemia, but no other symptoms of PCOS. The Metformin made my hypoglycemia worse. I couldn’t exercise for more than 20 minutes without my blood sugar dipping down into the 50s. It completely sapped my energy too–I felt so bad I had to stop taking it.

However, it is apparently supposed to help with the hormonal imbalance PCOS causes, and it helps a lot of people. Hair loss wasn’t addressed; you’d want to research the mechanism of that. If it’s related to estrogen/progesterone deficiency then the metformin might help.

7

I started taking metformin for type 2 diabetes ten years ago. As others have noted, it gave me an upset stomach for a few weeks, but that was the extent of it.

8

I have PCOS, and have taken metformin for about 15 years. It helped regulate my insulin levels and lose weight. It also slower my progress into diabetes by years.

TMI details in a PM.

9

Just got my July 2015 Scientific American today. In it is an article entitled “Can We Stop Aging” (yeah, I know). One of the things reported on in the article is a study at Cardiff University from 2014 that says that patients with type 2 diabetes who took metformin lived on average 15 percent longer than a group of healthy people without diabetes but who were similar in nearly all other respects. The speculation is that metformin interrupts a normal aging process in which glucose combines with proteins and other molecules, “gumming up” their workings (glycation).

The finding was particularly noteworthy because people with even well-controlled diabetes typically have somewhat shorter lifespans than their healthy counterparts. Thought this thread’s readers would be interested in this info.

10

Thanks, jimbuff314! I will have to look that up.

11

I’ve taken Metformin for years. While I have PCOS, I can’t speak to the hair growth as I don’t really have the hair loss / extra hair issues associated with it. It seems to be helping me lose a bit of weight, but I still have to be vigilant about that (and I haven’t been lately).

12

Hello from a fellow PCOS sufferer! I’m on metformin for it…and it’s helped tremendously. I’m now able to keep my weight at a reasonable number without starving myself, and best of all I finally have mostly clear skin. I had acne that kept getting worse and worse throughout my 20s and 30s, and metformin was the only thing that helped when I finally got on it at age 41.

I never had hair loss due to the PCOS, but I’ve done a TON of research (check out soulcysters.com) and I’d recommend you look into getting a prescription for spironolactone.

It’s a diuretic, but for PCOS sufferers it has the effect of lowering testosterone levels (MANY women with PCOS have elevated testosterone levels, which causes the thinning hair and acne so many PCOS women are afflicted with). PLEASE check it out! The major warning for women using spiro is that it causes birth defects, but since you do not plan to have children then no worries.

13

No one yet has interpreted PCOS. Why do people use esoteric terms, thinking everybody knows this? I’ve take metformin for many months, with no problems - reason is high sugar .

14

PCOS is Polycistic ovary syndrome. Metformin is often prescribed (off-label?) as a treatment. My wife was briefly on Metformin for PCOS and we can’t recall specific side effects, but we do remember it didn’t seem to help her. What helped in her case was hormone replacement.

15

Is Google available in your area? Because when I type PCOS into google, a definition comes up.

16

Why should so many people have to Google to find out what the OP is talking about when she could have defined the term in her opening post? If people want help, they should provide as much information as possible and not assume everyone is familiar with undefined groups of initials. I commend aktep for providing a definition, unlike your post, which is somewhat less helpful. This board is about fighting ignorance, after all.

17

In fairness, the OP was asking about people with PCOS and their experience w/Metformin. Believe me, anyone with PCOS knows what PCOS is. Those who don’t have it–and who don’t know what it is–aren’t the ones who need to answer that particular aspect of her question. Ignorance is bliss, in this case. Although those taking Metformin for diabetes (as I do) did offer responses that were probably useful regarding side effects.

So I don’t think it needed definition. PCOS is only relevant to answering the OP’s question if you have it. Nothing wrong with asking about it, of course, for those who are curious. But still, the 'tude was unnecessary since it’s very easily answered by Google (or AltaVista if you’re from Pawnee, Indiana :)).

18

I disagree. I’ve taken Metformin for diabetes. I wasn’t aware people took it for other conditions. A little more definition in the OP still would have been helpful. People should give all the information necessary in their OP if they want helpful answers instead of making people run off to Google before deciding if they have anything helpful to contribute.

19

My wife was put on Metformin for PCOS quite a number of years ago. It was extremely effective in improving her condition, including helping her to lose over 80 lbs.

20

Yes, this. If you don’t already know what PCOS is, then you can’t answer my questions about how metformin has helped your PCOS, right? I don’t have diabetes and am not interested in soliciting experiences about metformin helping diabetes – if I get curious, I’ll ask that question next time.