Unfortunately, metformin is not well tolerated by many women. Unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects are common with metformin usage and they are sometimes so severe that the drug must be discontinued. Perhaps this fact has influenced your doctor’s opinion of metformin. Especially since you are not overweight, perhaps he thinks diet is enough.
Regardless of how you and your doctor decide to handle your insulin resistance, therapy for that alone may not make you pregnant. You are thirty-five (half of your fertility potential is lost by age thirty-five) and you may need to consider being more aggressive in your treatment. Have you had a complete fertility workup? You need one. If you have had one and it is all normal, you may want to discuss with your doctor the possibility of doing ovulation induction with possible inseminations to increase your chance of a pregnancy.
Read the May Fertile Thoughts column
Read the March Fertile Thoughts column
Fertile Thoughts is published monthly. Each column features a real question from a reader, and we invite other readers to respond with their thoughts and insights by posting comments. If you have a question for Dr. Carlene Elsner, please send it to her care of the editor at laura@realgirlsmedia.com. Your question will be kept in the strictest of confidence.
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