Metformin and Pregnancy
I was wondering if anyone else feels uneasy about taking Metformin for gestational diabetes for pregnancy. I did some research and found that the FDA will not at this time say that it is safe for pregnancy, only that it appears not to affect animals. I did a lot of hard work to get my blood sugars down to almost acceptable levels. Only a few of them were a few points higher. This medication is making me nauseous and sick to my stomach as well as very tired. I am thinking (and praying) about coming off of it and really sticking it to my diet to get these sugars down. It is concerning to me that they say that Metformin should not be given to a child under 10 and then they say that it is okay for babies (?????)
I am very leary of medication and drugs in general (I usually go to a Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor) and I am confused about what the Western Docs are telling me. Can anyone share their experience with this???
Re: Metformin and Pregnancy
long time lurker, first time poster but thought I might be of some help or at least offer a different opinion....
I started taking metformin to get pregnant. I have PCOS and we had a difficult time conceiving. We got pregnant about 2 months after I started on the metformin but I had taken it years before to control the PCOS. My dr.'s kept me on it for the first 4 months to help avoid a miscarriage then at about 4 1/2 months started urging me to go off.
I am on the other end of the spectrum, I actually fought my dr to stay on it because I have done a lot of research about women with PCOS going off and getting GD as a result or worse, late term miscarriage. I went off for 1 month at the request of my dr. and immediately developed GD (my sugars went from 110 after eating to 180 after eating and this was with regulating my diet as well) Beyond that I have also read that it helps some women produce breast milk and I could not find any evidence that it was harmful during pregnancy so I went back on it. One of my biggest arguments to my dr. was that I was on it for the first 4 1/2 months at their urging and I'm now 7 1/2 months so I don't see any reason to go off of it for 2 months only to have to take insulin injections and if it is not safe, then I should not have been told to take it for the first half of the pregnancy.
Ultimately you know your body and what is right for you. If you are not comfortable taking something, you should research and see if there are any other options available to you. If you are able to control the GD with just diet, that would probably be the best option if you are not comfortable with meds. If your dr. does not support that, you should think about a second opinion.
Good luck!
My doctor chose to take me off of it at about 8 weeks into the pregnancy. I'd been on Metformin regularly for about a year. At the time I thought it was a blessing since Met made me get sick in the mornings, every morning, like clockwork. Without it, though, my sugars have not remained under control and I do have GD, despite being quite active and having a decent (but admittedly not great_ diet.
That being said, in animal studies high doses -- and I'm only reading abstracts so what they consider a "high" dose may be very high indeed -- caused birth defects, and this seems to be the reason cited by the more conservative doctors who pull patients off of Met. Given the choice between the two, my personal feeling was that I'll take the risk with GD and alter my diet as best I can to control the sugar. That was my personal conclusion, though. I'm sure whatever you decide will be right for you.
@ tattooed- Thanks for your thoughts. I too am going to try to control it through diet and exercise. Metformin made me feel so sick I ended up in OB triage. My doctor tried to tell me that it was just pregnancy nausea and stomach upset, but I haven't had ANY morning sickness (thank you God!) and my stomach has been feeling great because I have been strictly following the diabetes diet.
The only reason they are putting me on it is for my morning numbers. But there is a phenomenon where your sugars spike up right before you wake up. If that is the case for me, then I am fine. I am going to set an alarm and see if my sugars are up in the middle of the night. My husband is encouraging me and volunteering for cooking duty to make sure that I have healthy food to eat.