Anyone familiar with the new Glucophage XR?

[mekiemom]

We are ttc #2 and my new Dr. wants to put me on Glucophage XR (I have pcos). A few years ago I tried glucophage and it did not agree with me intestinally (had to be near potty at all times!). So I was put on Actos and tolerated it very well and it helped us conceive our miracle baby. Has anyone out there had success with this new extended release form of glucophage? Supposedly it is not as rough on the intestines as the original one. I don't want to go on this stuff again if it's going to be the same song and dance. Thank god at the time I was taking it last time I had my own bathroom at work!
Thanks,
Jenn
our sweet girl 3/02

[MelissaTC]

I take it. I have been on it for months. The benefits of being on gluc/met for someone with PCOS are great, even when not ttc.

Anyway, I like the XR version much better. Remember that it does take your body a good 2 weeks or so to adjust to it. I have found that sticking to less carbs and sugar helps with the GI effects. I couldn't even handle 500 mg when ttc 3 years ago but am now taking 1500 mg of the XR. You can take all your meds at one time because of the extended release. My RE suggested taking it with dinner. He also said you can take some of it in the am and the rest in the pm, whatever works best with your schedule.

We talked about Actos but he told me that he was worried about weight gain as a side effect and that it would be counterproductive. Did you suffer any side effects from Actos?

[mekiemom]

Hi Melissa,
I was worried about the side effects from the Actos as well but it worked wonderfully for me. I started it in April 01 After a few months of no success and side effects with the Glucophage and got a cycle the next month (which I never did on my own) and was pregnant by July after 6-8 years of trying with other invasive fertility treatments. Luckily though I knew very soon that I was pregnant and immediately stopped taking the Actos. That's the scary thing with the Actos, you cannot take that while pregnant. I'm hoping this XR stuff will work for me this time since it is a little safer than Actos/Avandia with pregnancy.

Jenn

[brittone2]

I'm a fellow PCOS'er here, and when we were ttc DS I went on 1500 mg of regular metformin. My tests never showed that I had insulin resistance but I wanted to try it. It never helped me respond better to clomid, and it never helped me get my cycles back on my own, but I wanted to be on it because it helps reduce the risk of miscarriage in PCOSers regardless of why they are technically insulin resistant or not. I never felt great on it, but I did tolerate it by gradually stepping up the dose. I was really sick the first 2 weeks or so, but after that it got better. I'd be interested in trying XR the next time around. We ended up conceiving on gonal F injectables and I stayed on met for the first trimester. Now that I'm BFing I'm not on it.
A really good pcos website is www.soulcysters.net if you are looking for more info on metformin and metformin XR. THey have a lot of really good research articles and message boards for metformin/gluc too.

Good luck!

[tinkerbell1217]

I took it for 4 months before conceiving our last baby. Mind you, I went off of it because it made my cycles very long. I always had regular cycles with ovulation. The doc tried it with me because of recurrent miscarriage not because of PCOS. I don't have PCOS. It did not agree with my stomach either, but I am told its a regualr side effect of taking glucophage. I dealt with terrible stomach problems the whole time and I was on the XR. Once I quit taking it my cycles went back to normal and I conceived a few months later!

[TaChapm]

I took it for about 5 months and am now pregnant when our doctor said we would have a less than 5% chance without doing IVF again. We showed him! I never had any bad side effects from it, but I did watch my sugar intake because if I ate too much sugar it would make me feel bad for a short time. Nothing too bad though. Well worth it!
Good luck!
Tara
Mommy to Jackson 11-10-02
and Surprise! #2 EDD 6-28-05

http://lilypie.com/baby3/021110/2/8/1/-6/.png

http://lilypie.com/days/050629/3/0/1/-6/.png

[vikivoly]

I also have PCOS (or had - since I had a hysterectomy does that mean I don't have it any more? hmmm) Any how, I took both the regular and the XR and didn't notice any difference in the GI area - sorry. :(