Hi Rayvyn-

I'm not Supergoof, but I'm jumping in here anyway.  Two of my doctors
(gynecologost and endocrinologist) told me in a rather offhand manner that
I "probably" had PCOS, but I've never been tested for it or had any
official diagnosis of it.  (I didn't bring it up or ask them if I had it;
they each mentioned it on their own.)  I'm on metformin for DM T2, and I've
found that it's good not only for blood glucose control, but for weight
control as well.  Not metformin by itself, certainly -- a low-carb diet and
exercise figure more prominently in both -- but the metformin makes a
noticeable difference.

I've been taking it for 2 years and 3 months.  At first, my doc ramped me
up from 500 mg/day to 2000 over several weeks, but I had the standard
gastrointestinal side-effects for months, so she reduced the dose to 1000
mg/day.  I've found that to be a very effective level.  (I've read that
1500 mg/day is the "minimum therapeutic dose", but 1000 works for me.)

I've gone from 216 pounds to 106 pounds, and have been in maintenance for a
few months now.  My fasting BGs are in the 70's, and post-meal BGs are in
the 80's or 90's.  Twice in the last year, my dose was reduced from 1000 to
500 mg/day, and both times I saw these effects:
  - BGs rose about 10 mg/dl at any given time of day
  - Return of the "dawn phenomenon" in which fasting BG is higher
    than bedtime BG
  - Weight started slowly creeping up, with no change in diet or
    exercise (this happened once during my weight-loss phase, and
    once in maintenance.)

In both cases it took about two weeks after lowering the dose for these
effects to show up, and I watched closely for several more weeks to make
sure it wasn't a temporary fluke.  It appeated real.  Both times I went
back to 1000 mg/day, and was right back on track.  I've convinced my
endocrinologist to let me stay at 1000 mg/day, even though she usually
tries to wean her patients off medication altogether when they have BG
numbers in the range that mine are in.

Em