Hi. I'm having a terrible time with metformin. I have suffered on and off now for 2 years with foul sulfur burps and diarrhea with sickness. Always starts during the night. I have been seen by gastroenterology and he seems to think it's either metformin or IBS. I'm due to have a double endoscopy and colonoscopy just to rule out crohns but he's pretty sure it's medication. I've now changed to 7mg rybelsus, 40mg of glipizide, and 5 mg of alogliptin a day. Has anyone else suffered this? I'm really struggling. I'm having to have time off work and cannot enjoy things anymore.
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Help with metformin
- Thread starter Betpipdip
- Start date
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Welcome to the forum
Many do suffer problems initially but it usually settles down within a few weeks and we normally advise people to go back to their GP and ask for an alternative if it doesn't. Certainly it is not something you should put up with for months on end, some people just cannot tolerate even the slow release version which is an option if it is not already that.
Have you tried not taking it to see if it helps.
Dietary changes are usually needed even with metformin but if you tried that and it didn't have enough impact then that is why the other meds have been added.
What is your HbA1C at the moment.
Hi thanks so much. My Hbac1 was 54 on my last test. I'm to be tested again at end of July. Depending on result my nurse is going to up my rybelsus from 7mg to 14mg. I need to start weight loss also. I have been on the slow release for about just over 2 years. My first symptoms started on holiday. I thought it was food poisoning with the sulfur burps and extreme diarrhoea. Two days before the holiday I was put on 1000mg twice daily. Now as from today my nurse has taken it off me only from what my gastroenterologyst advised.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
You are definitely getting there with your HbA1C, I assume it must have been significantly higher to be put on so many medications.
Were you just starting with that HbA1C then diet alone may well have been sufficient to bring it down and the achieve weight loss.
Usually when metformin is started it is with a low dose 500mg and increased over a number of weeks not a large dose to start with, that cold be why all your trouble started.
Thankyou. It was going up and down. Highest it's been is around 85. I did originally start at 500mg but not long after upped the dose. That is when all the problems started. It has been on and off all the time. Always starting in the middle of the night.