Hi, I’ve had T2 for over 10 years with no medication but now my blood sugar has gone up so the Doc put me on Metformin 500 mg twice a day. Horrible side effects. Anyone know what the side effects are on the other dugs available. PS I’m 74 and a woman (not that this makes a difference I suppose!)
As
@sno0opy stated, there's also a slow release kind of metformin to try, if you want to stay on it. Also, you really shouldn't take it on an empty stomach, that just makes it worse. For me, I'm one of those lucky people for whom the side effects stuck around. I never left the loo anymore, and by the time I finally saw the nurse (was diagnosed when everyone was on holiday, so that took about a month) I was already having intestinal bleeding, among other things. I was switched to gliclazide, which is a completely different drug, (Metformin keeps your liver from dumping too much glucose in the morning. Gliclazide however, forces your pancreas to produce more insulin) but by that time I had also changed my diet, which meant I had hypo's regularly.
If you feel like you don't want any medication at all, thus cancelling out the concern for side effects, you might want to try the low carb diet. It worked for me (I was rid of all medication in no time at all, including statins for cholesterol), and have been in the non diabetic range for the past three and a half years, or thereabouts. And it has worked for a lot of people here.
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html <--have a read, see whether it makes sense. It's not a diet you need an expensive subscription for or anything like that. Just learn what is good for your blood sugars and what isn't. Heck, I know my groceries are less expensive than they used to be, so it could actually save you money in the end.
Good luck!
Jo