Medication review - Diane35 and Meftormin

Assalammualaikum wbt,

Lately i was thinking of starting a vlog, because i love to watch ttcian from all over the world documenting their journey through videos in youtube. However, i am a shy person, especially in front of the camera hehe. I also figure it out that no ttcian vlog are made from my country. Hurm, should i make it?

Back to the real topic for this post, it is about my medication for this time of treatment. As i mention in my previous post, my doctor, Prof Hashim from Hukmsc, presribed me with birth control pill, or oral contraceptive pill called Diane35. Actually diane35 is not a new drug for me. I was previously on this drug when i was 21, right after my first diagnosis of pcos.

Diane35 is an antiandrogen drug together with estrogen (cyproterone acetate 2mg and ethinyl estradiol 0.035mg). This drug is not solely use for contraceptive purpose only but also to prevent or reduce androgenic effect of the body such as acne and hirsutism. That is why this drug is suitable to treat pcos as we are high in androgen hormone. So as any other birth control pill, it consist of 21 tablet for a month supply and should be taken a tablet daily as a same time. Personally i dont really like this drug, well i Hate it!!! Haha. It causes me a lot of side effects that i cannot stand it any longer. Luckily i was on this drug for only 2 month before i start my fertility drug. These are some of the side effect that might occur to you when taking diane35:

• Breast tenderness/pain*-especially towards the end of finishing the pill
• Abdominal pain*
• Nausea*-worse ever in me!
• Oedema
• Headache*-for me it is more like light headache when starting the pill
• Skin rash
• Itching
• Insomnia
• Depression - i dont know if this happen to me, but i do feel a little bit emosional
• Changes in body weight*- i ate a lot and of course i blame diane35, hehe but i did not gain weight
• Change in libido

*side effect that happened to me

After 4 days stopping diane, my period came like a hero (seperti juara!) . It was heavy for about 2-4 days and spotting for another 5 days. Huu. No severe abdominal pain during period time yeayy alhamdulillah. 

Ok, next is Metformin.

Metfromin is a type 2 diabetes mellitus drug, prescribe as a first line therapy. However, since pcos is link with insulin resistant and sooner or later we will develop diabetes as well. This drug presribed ia a low dose for pcos to regulate insulin by increasing its sensivity hence reducing insulin level in the blood and also help to increase glucose uptake. In simple explanation, it makes our insulin function properly. Pcos tend to have insulin resistant becouse pcos is an endrocrine disorder. This disorder disruption endrocrine hormones like insulin and our fertility hormones.

My doctor presribe me with 850mg metformin. At first i did not manage to complete a strip because i cannot tolerate it's side effects, however, after completed my 2nd dose of diane35, i continue taking it until now. It is because the side effect of metformin and diane is slightly similar and it making g much much worse for me.

The side effect of metformin are:

• Nausea*- worse.ever.😷
• Diarrhea*- after 5 hours of taking it (i usually take it before i went to bed to reduce the nausiatic effect) it woke me up in the middle of the night and rush we go to the toilet!
• Flatulence and bloating*- they come like a package with before diarrhea. Imagine that! I barely slept at night because of this!
• Metallic taste
• Abdominal pain*- combo with diarhhea yeayy

However, all these side effect im having is slighly reduce after i start over meftormin again. And now im free from all those side effects!!! Alhamdulillah. It takes a while to tolerate with it (dont be like me), but you will get used to it. The best thing is, i didnt have a craving anymore! Usually before this, i MUST ATE AFTER 4 hours of meal. Gile x.? I think it's my hormone becoming haywired. And if i didnt ate, i will become grumpy and i feels like a hypoglycemic effect. Now, it didnt happen!.  Even did not feel hungry when it is time for meal. So, i manage to eat small portion without the 'starving' feeling anymore!.

Annndddd there is more! Metformin in conjuction with clomid or letrozole increase the chances of ovulation, then the fertility drug itself! Best kan?!! Cool isnt it?? This part i will talk about it in other post ok.

Orait that is all for now. I hope my writing benefits you. And feel free to share what is your side effects taking these 2 pills in the comment below. 

Bye..👋🏻

TTC @HUKM - 1st appointment

Assalammualaikum and good day everyone.

Today i decide to write in 80% english language. Another 20% will be in my mother's tougue language, which is Malay Language. It is because i want any information writen to be useful for all my friends around the world. *ntah ade ke pembaca dari omputih ni..kih3..biaq pi lah*. And also, i want to improve my english writing skills, so if there is any grammatical mistakes, please, do guide me ok.

It's been a while since my last entry. After about a month break from ttcing, we went to prof hashim's clinic at HUKM private wing. FYI, hukm provide 2 clinics for fertility, one in the Medical Assisted Conception (MAC) clinic, which is the government sector part, one in private sector at level 7. We chose to go to private sector since our record is already there, when we sought for a second opinion on my ectopic, and also to cut all the other procedur needed in MAC (well this one i didnt know much about, maybe they need you to do certain test or queue up or something).

The first visit was very simple and quick, appointment was made 1 month before the appoitnment date because Prof is going overseas for about half a month, so we didnt manage to see him before he go. Usually, if you are lucky enough, the 1st appointnment will be around 2 weeks. I was schedule to see him at 3pm. So we arrive at 2.30pm, register at nurse counter and i got number 5 out of 7 patient during 3-4pm session. Not bad. So we went for solah first, and wait in front of his room. The queue was rather quick actually. By the time i came back from solah, there is already 3 patients had seen him. So, i waited for about another half an hour and our name were called.

Upon seeing him, he smile at us and ask what is our plan. We said that we wanted to try again after the miscarriage and we will do whatever he suggested. He then said that the key treatment for pcoser like me is to regulate my period back. According to his experience, with 3 cycle of period, and proven ovulation, pcoser can get pregnant naturally. So he suggested for me to take diane for 2 cycle, and start fertility drugs in the 3rd cycle. We agree. He also put me on metformin 850mg daily for my insulin resistant, although i do not have this yet but pcoser tend to have this sooner or later, and metformin can improve my hormonal imbalance during fertility treatment. I will explain about this further in other post about drugs ok.

So no ivf this year i think. Just back to basic. Well, i actually relieve because i know we are in a care good hands. Prof Hashim is the head of MAC and had experience in consulting many couples and also teaching in UKM. As according to doc adilah, he is a practical person, he may not do what exactly the book said, but he knows how to apply them, and he knows what he is doing. Tq doc adilah for suggesting him.

Ok, some of you may worries on him being your fertility doctor since he is a male. Well, i will discuss this matter in other post ok.

Until then.. Byeee