posted 09-04-2003 01:50 AM            

I listed below the side effect you mentioned above that each of the drugs you are taking can cause (there are many more side effects these drugs can cause, but I only listed the ones each one can cause that you say you are having):

These are the drugs you say you are taking: Glucophage, Spironolactone, Mircette, and then Paxil and Xanax.

Glucophage (metformin): dizzy spells, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headaches, stomach pain

Spironalactone: fatigue, headache, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea

Mircette: loss of hair (all of it), headache, dizzy spells, stomach cramps

Paxil: headache, dizzy spells, nausea, vomiting, fatigue

Xanax: headache, dizzy spells, fatigue

Drugs can interact, and lead to other side effects; in your case, perhaps your tooth decay is due to these drugs interaction with each other.

I had one friend who took a medicine for 5 years without problems. Then one day she developed blurred vision, terrible headaches, and dizziness. Her doctor put her through several tests. She stayed in the hospital for one week. They found nothing. Not once was her medicine questioned.

I asked her what medicines she took. We looked them up in a drug book and found that one of her blood pressure medicines caused such symptoms. You have to realize that a medicine can start symptoms at any time, even years after you are taking it with no effects.

She stopped the medicine. In days her symptoms were gone! She asked her doctor to give her another one for her blood pressure. 2 weeks after the new one, she started to have a mysterious coughing. Again, we looked up this drug in a book and found that coughing was a side effect! This time, my friend went to her doctor angry about what was he doing to her giving her drugs that had such terrible effects.

Sometimes you have to weigh the side effect of the medicine versus getting treatment. I took drugs for asthma for years without problems, then one day I suffered terrible immune system problems. All were related to the asthma drugs. I stopped them and found other ways to treat my asthma. Now I do not suffer from asthma.

You can find the side effects for any drugs by doing a search on the internet---the drug companies list their effects online.

posted 09-04-2003 02:19 AM            

You are doing the right thing: first you went to a doctor for a full evaluation. Now, so far one test has shown no systemic problem. Now if the other tests reveal no problem, then you will have to seriously question the drugs you are taking, as many of them can cause the same symptoms.

Sometimes stomach problems can be avoided with certain drugs if they are taken with a full meal, but sometimes even eating foods don't prevent the stomach problems. In the future, you should get into the habit to read the potential side effects of any medicine you are given, and keep these in mind as you take the meds and keep a watch for them. Most manufacturers post online the adverse effects of their medications. Just type in the medicine name and adverse effects, and you should find the manufacturer's literature.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome can cause the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and even loss of hair (as can that one medicine you are taking). These are possible risks, but you may not necessarily get these problems.

The spironolactone is used to control excess hair growth in the wrong places, the glucophage controls the male hormones levels as can the birth control you are taking. While there isn't a cure for PCOS, there are other non-medical treatments you can have that will let you get off of the spironolactone, glucophage and the mircette, such as:

Treatment for excess hair growth through:
Electrolysis, in which hair is permanently removed by electric current applied to the hair root.
Depilatories, chemical hair removal products applied to the skin.
Waxing, which pulls the hair out by the root.
Shaving.
Tweezing.
Bleaching.

None of these non-medical treatments have any of the serious effects you are getting from those medicines. I can't imagine having to take those medicines until your menopause, and suffer all of those effects.

posted 09-06-2003 04:08 AM            

Do you have bad breath, pain at your sternum(epigastrium), stomach noises, foul smelling stool, burning sensation, pimples(acne)? Let me know.
In the mean time, avoid eating foods that i have mentioned in other postings.

posted 09-06-2003 07:19 AM            

quote:

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I have been having strange symptoms for over 2 years- severe diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting, extreme hair loss (about 50%), body aches, headaches, fatigue, dizzy spells, and tooth decay....

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are far too severe to be cured just by avoiding eating certain foods. I believe your original suspicion is accurate: that you are suffering side effects from some or all of those drugs you are taking. A couple of those drugs you are taking can lead to problems with vitamin and mineral levels, including calcium and iron as you wrote you tested low on.

While it is good to avoid troublesome foods, as hepatitiscure advises, you are taking several, not just one, drugs that cause serious intestinal problems and upset, and as long as you take those offending drugs, you will have those problems, no matter what you do or don't eat.

posted 09-10-2003 07:45 AM            

You can try to take all of your medicines with full meals, not snacks, to see if that eliminates or lessens your stomach problems with them. That is a conservative method. Now, from what I read on your condition (I'm not a doctor or in the healthcare field), PCOS can also lead to hair loss, so it is hard to tell if the PCOS is responsible or that one med I found you are taking that can lead to hair loss. It could be you would have hair loss no matter what. I know that is socially very embarrassing, and you may have no recourse but to cover that hair loss with a wig.

You could also try to break up during the day when you are taking your pills. I don't know if you take them all at once, or space them out, but if you take them at once, you may try spacing them out with different meals to try to lessen the upsets.

Now, since dizzy spells are very hard to live with, you could see if taking a lower dose of the same meds will provide you relief from the dizzy spells and yet still help your condition. However, maybe full meals with the offending meds will take care of the dizzy spells. You should ask your endo to help you. You should tell your endo that you think that you may be having side effects from the pills and if he can help you try to lower to a dose that will remove the dizzy spells, or at least monitor you as you lower your dose.

These are some alternatives you can try. It is obvious you need some if not all of these medicines for your condition, but you may need to lower some doses or find ways to take them that will lessen, if not eliminate, the bad side effects. Try first just spacing out the pills and taking each doses with full meals, not snacks. Take them after the full meals, not before, as you are looking to have the food help to eliminate the stomach upsets, cramps, and diarrhea.

Maybe just doing that will help, even with the dizzy spells. If not, then see about going on lower doses, but don't get off the pills, as you do need them from what you wrote. Don't despair, frenchie77. Don't feel that your endocrinologist has betrayed you; have you even told him of your side effects and your suspicions the meds are the cause? Sometimes endos know of the side effects, but also know that you, as a patient, have no choice because of your disease to take the pills, so they don't say anything, because what can they say?

posted 09-10-2003 06:41 PM            

Do I think your inflammation could be elsewhere than your intestines? Well, you mentioned you have body aches---you should think yourself any place that you feel aches, because inflammation usually causes tenderness in the area. Could be your reproductive organs, since you do have PCOS; but I don't know where you feel aches. The thing to figure out is if your inflammation is due to an infection or an irritation. But, frenchie77, let's not jump to conclusions. The best thing is to rule out your intestines first, if you can by using that little gadget thing you mentioned that you swallow.

If all looks clear, then you can feel safe in assuming your stomach/intestine symptoms are related to the drugs effects. If you have diarrhea long enough, and cramps, in time your colon will become irritated and inflamed from the abuse, no matter what is causing these symptoms. That new technology gadget sounds like a great deal, and would give you peace of mind in one way.

I hope the dermatologist you see is more helpful than the ones I have seen. Brace yourself, because you may not get the answers you seek, but don't despair. The reason I say this is because I went to several dermatologists to find the cause of a rash on my arms, and an inflammation on my face, and none of them cared to find the cause, they only gave me topical medicines to treat the symptoms. I left very disappointed in all the dermatologists, that none would care to find the cause, but then it occured to me that was probably a task beyond their scope. So I would be surprised if the dermatologist you are going to see does anymore than give you medicines to try to stimulate hair growth and treat your symptoms, and ignores trying to find the causes. They aren't God; they're just dermatologists.

However, you have a very solid reason to be losing hair at your age, and that is the PCOS. Mircette has been known to cause hair loss also, but the fact that you have PCOS kind of points to that as the culprit, especially since you indicated you had very bad symptoms of the disease.