August 30, 2004
Other
Question from Houston, Texas, USA:
I have a two year old son. I had miscarried two times before conceiving with him and a fertility doctor had found that I was possibly insulin resistant. I could have polycystic ovaries, too. Needless to say, she put me on Glucophage for the first trimester of my pregnancy hopefully to prevent me from miscarrying again. It indeed worked, as I have a healthy baby today.
Do you know if studies are finding that babies subjected to the use of Glucophage while in the womb are having learning difficulties or are behind in development? I have not been able to find any information anywhere as to the validity of this. I’m just curious. My son is about nine months behind developmentally, in speech and comprehension, and I was just wondering if there were findings of side effects from the mother taking Glucophage. I’m trying to make a decision about whether or not to take it when I get pregnant again.
Answer:
Glucophage has been used extensively to treat PCOS and has been continued during pregnancy. The thinking is that it reduces the risk for miscarriage and developing gestational diabetes. So far, there do not appear to be any adverse outcomes, although the focus has been on structural abnormalities rather than long term follow-up such as learning issues. The concern about the use of Glucophage would be transient hypoglycemia in the developing fetus. The effects of hypoglycemia on the fetus are not well studied. An option would be to use Glucophage until conception and then stop it as soon as you have a positive pregnancy test. The main reason to be using it is to improve ovulation.
OWJ
