Metformin And Pregnancy

Metformin And Pregnancy- Diabetes is has two forms which are the insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and the non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Oral hypoglycemic drugs are usually used for the treatment of the non-insulin variant. There are various groups of drugs that are used for controlling the glucose absorption in people suffering from this problem. Metformin is an oral hypoglycemic drug which is popular as a drug for the control of glucose in non-insulin dependent diabetes.

Metformin basically reduces the hepatic production of glucose and also the absorption of glucose from the intestine into the blood. The other important action of Metformin is that increases the utilization of glucose peripherally as well as by the muscles. There are other advantages of taking metformin medication as well which include its action on inflamed parts, and its role in lipid control. Now with every good thing some negatives are bound to be there so one such negative with the use of metformin is that in female patients it stimulates luteinizing hormone and as a result these people are more susceptible to ovulation than other people.

Mostly women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome are affected by a constant dosage of metformin which leads to them conceiving. In female patients who were mostly infertile and suffering from the above mentioned syndrome the constant use of metformin led to an improvement in the rates on conception among these women. Also a very few of these patients had complications which led to an abortion. The patients suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome also reported very few cases of miscarriage or of a restricted growth of the child.

Although it is important to know that till now there is no evidence of any kind of toxicity that the fetus suffers from if the mother is on metformin. There have been studies conducted on rats which were kept on a dosage almost double of what is recommended for humans and these showed no signs of any toxicity.

There are also studies that have been conducted where there is a decreased incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus in women who were on metformin since some time compared to those women who were not. Along with this there is an additional positive that the children who were born did not show any signs of suffering from any side effects from taking this drug. Although these results have not been confirmed as yet so, it would be wise to discontinue metformin medication once the pregnancy is confirmed.

So as far as the research that has been done on metformin and its role in pregnancy most of the results obtained are very positive in the sense that taking metformin can help an almost infertile woman to conceive without the risk of the child being affected by any problem due to long term metformin medication. Hopefully more research is done in this area as it can prove to be beneficial to so many people making their lives better. After all we should all strive hard to make our and the others’ lives better and happier.