Metafit and Metformin

It's no secret that I have a condition called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, I've mentioned it in my blog posts a lot. But I am not sure that I have ever written a post on here that is specifically about it. I've known I had PCOS since I was about 14. As a teenager, too embarrassed to talk about it, I took to the internet to try and make sense of what was happening (and not happening) in my body. My searching led me to PCOS which explained my totally infrequent periods, the low mood I experienced so much of the time and the rapid growth of my leg hair that made Standard Grade PE a bit of a bind at times. 

I knew I had it. 

But, I didn't know how to tell anyone. My lack of regular cycle was something that bothered my mum, I knew that, and every now and then she would say "if it doesn't show up soon we will need to see the doctor" but it would eventually show up and we would be back to ignoring the issue - it turns out my mum was good at ignoring health issues, she ignored her breast cancer for too long and had secondaries by the time she went to the doctor about it. It's something I am working hard to address because I have inherited her reflex for burying my head in the sand, but I need to reset my default. As a result, I have probably seen the doctor more in the last two years than in the previous 28 years of my life combined, and it is still always a battle to make an appointment.

So after years of ignoring the issue and a few more years of trying to seek help, I finally received an official diagnosis of PCOS in 2013 but it has taken until just a few weeks ago to get a proper course of treatment. It has been a battle to get the GPs and Gynaecologists that I have seen to look at and understand the whole picture. Before I got married the party line was that I should be on birth control to address my symptoms. The problem with that is that it doesn't address the underlying cause, so as soon as you cease the medication all of the symptoms return, and on top of this my mum's medical history has put a question mark over my suitability for hormonal treatment. 

Once I got married the way in which I was treated changed dramatically. This was probably also, in part, due to us having conceived and lost a child, but becoming a Mrs seemed to change how the doctors treated my PCOS. Suddenly all of the conversations became about fertility. 

Often it felt like I was not being heard. 

Fertility, of course, is part of the picture, but it's not the whole picture. Following our miscarriage I was emotionally everywhere and my body was not playing fair. Appointment after appointment I tried to push the fact that my main concern was the unpredictability and frequency of bleeding that I was experiencing (gone were the days of months between periods that I experienced as a teenager) along with chronic pain, urinary issues and constant carb cravings, to mention just a few symptoms, and appointment after appointment the main topic of conversation coming from the doctor was about their assumptions that we would conceive again naturally, and that if a year passed without that happening then they would look at referring me to gynaecology in order that I could be prescribed Metformin. Metformin that would likely help to regulate my hormones and lessen my symptoms - the symptoms that I felt were being brushed over in favour of discussing our fertility. 

After a lot of pushing, I eventually received an appointment for the gynaecology clinic in July 2016 (6 months after the referral was made). I was so sure that this would be the start of things changing for me. I was sure I would leave the appointment with an action plan for getting my body back on track - not just for fertility reasons but so I could actually live my life. The appointment couldn't have been more of a disappointment, yet again, my voice wasn't heard. A scan showed that I had no cysts on my ovaries, which of course is good news, but this does not mean that I was misdiagnosed. It is fairly common for women to have the syndrome without any cysts, something that causes a lot of debate over whether the name of the condition is appropriate. However, the doctor I saw dismissed many of my symptoms as "not her area" and sent me packing with nothing more than a prescription for IBS medication and a repeat appointment for 6 months time, which she only gave because I burst into tears when it became clear she was dismissing my situation. IBS medication was not going to treat the prolonged bleeding which was slowly but surely wearing me down.

The repeat appointment came in January and I was delighted to find my appointment was with a different doctor who was under the same consultant. As he began referring to my notes from my last appointment I couldn't hide my frustration, thankfully he was sympathetic to my situation and made a point of checking in with the consultant and eventually recommending I be treated with Metformin. 

It took nearly 4 years from my official diagnosis to receive treatment. 

I have been on the medication now for 5 weeks and it has mostly been positive. It will take time to see whether it is effective and we hope that it will provide some respite from my symptoms to allow me to make the longer-term, sustained changes to my lifestyle, diet and exercise that will see me able to manage the condition more naturally.

Coinciding with starting the medication I have kickstarted my programme at the gym. I have tried gym membership before and always lost interest through boredom, but this time I used gentle cardio to get myself to a place where I felt fit enough to try some classes and I have found that I much prefer this way of exercising. I don't know whether it is the Metformin or the Metafit but I have seen a real difference in my weight, appetite and physical fitness over the past couple of months. 

This past week, however, has felt like a bit of a backwards step, I arrived at the full dose of Metformin on Friday and while I had been tolerating 500mg and then 1000mg really well, the jump to 1500mg was a jump too far. Within hours of the dose having upped I was experiencing extreme nausea, complete loss of appetite, extreme fatigue, irritability and low mood. I battled on until Tuesday until I could take it no longer and phoned the doctors for some advice. I've been told to take it back down to 1000mg for the next couple of months and then we will review where things are at. 

I am disappointed that I wasn't able to tolerate the full dose and I am unsure about what the ramifications of that will be in terms of the progress I will see on the lower dose. But I also feel like my diet and exercise routines have regressed. Feeling so poorly this week, I have allowed myself to eat anything that took my fancy because so much of the time the thought of any food made me feel extremely sick. The extreme fatigue has also kept me from the gym - no metafit or body attack for me this week. 

It feels frustrating not to have continued to move forward.

But perhaps it has given me an opportunity to put some things into their right place. In our bible read-through group this week we were sharing from 1 and 2 Timothy and the verse that really struck me was:

8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

I felt really convicted about how much of my thought-life has been occupied by the progress I have seen with my new medication and my new gym regime and, in comparison, how uninspired I have been to committing myself to prayer, worship and the Word. I've been reminded that while investing time in addressing physical health and fitness is important, it has to be coupled with investing time in my spiritual health and fitness because that is what truly lasts. 

We have to let our physical fitness serve our spiritual fitness. 

So this week might have been a write-off at the gym and I might have eaten a lot more toast and nutella than vegetables and whole foods but this week I have been more frequently in the Word and more fervent in prayer. And next week I will seek to make room for both as I come back again to the verse I felt God laid on my heart for this year:

But seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33