Hi everyone. I was diagnosed diabetic in December 2012 after years of being 'pre-diabetic'. The doctor started having me take Metformin at 500mg twice a day. The usual gastro distress occurred and no biggie. But I started having horrible horrible lower back pain about a week after starting Metformin. I told the doctors but I get no relief from them. They dismiss my pain. I've even done an experiment and stopped Metformin for a couple days. No surprise, the pain stopped! I went back on and pain so harsh I can barely walk.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem? If so, what were you able to do to resolve the pain? Were your doctors baffled like mine? If they figured out the issue, what was it?
Thank you for your advice!
Ian :? :|
I get most debilitating lower back pain (left side) in the obliques/rotator muscles, within 1-3 months of taking Metformin.
The pain is so severe that I can no longer stand or sit and have to be in bed. Even in bed, movement is restricted to one position. The pain does not respond to strong pain killers like Myospaz Forte. On the other hand, the pain goes away - so completely as if it never occured - within 3 to 5 days of stopping Metformin.
I was diagnosed in September 2007. I had HbA1C of 11.6, Fasting Sugar 280 mg/dl and PP Sugar 470 mg/dl at that time. After initial 6 months of medication and lifestyle management, I have mostly been in control of my diabetes by losing weight, diet control and regular exercise. (Mostly maintaining HbA1C of 5.25 to 6 and Fasting and PP both under 100 mg/dl, checked every three months) Therefore, I have not had to take Metformin regularly.
In these 9 years, I have had to go back on to Metformin 7-8 times whenever my lifestyle management slipped, but this cycle of Pain and Pain-disappearance on stopping it has happened
every time. My Doctors - I have had 4 different doctors since I have been moving cities - do not accept the connection. However, there is DEFINITELY an connection between Metformin and Back Pain, possibly affecting an extremely low %age of diabetics. I can say that since I have had same experiences 100% of the times in 9 years and you are reporting the same.
I always take SR version. The pain occurs irrespective of the dosage. I have been on 1 gm SR twice a day; 1 gm SR once a day; 500 mg SR twice a day; 500 mg SR once a day. The time it takes to develop the pain differs from within one month of starting the medicine to 3 months. The pain disappearance time on stopping the medicine has ranged between 3 to 7 days max.
BTW, I have never experienced increased gas or diarrhoea due to Metformin, which many people report. I wonder if there is a connection there.
