Hi everyone,

I am starting Byetta this Saturday and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it. I'm going to this awesome doctor in Philadelphia who is very holistic but still on the cutting edge of new medications and techniques to help with PCOS and insulin resistance. I was surprised when she recommended Byetta to me (and then said that she hated the birth control pill and what it is made of, and she'd rather see me on Byetta). I told her that my diet consisting of beans, veggies, and a few whole grains is what's keeping me under 200lbs, but I'm frustrated that my body won't go below that.

She said I'm extremely insulin resistant and so the drug will correct that. Once the extra weight is gone my body should start responding to my near-perfect diet in a more normal way. I'm very excited... but hope I don't wind up hugging the toilet after my first injection!

Are you fasting blood sugars very high?

I went and looked around online and from what I read it looks like it helps to lower your blood sugar to the proper target rates.

I have PCOS but with my diet my fasting blood sugars are in the low 80s. I don't take metformin cuz it makes my FBS go too low.

Looks like results range from losing up to 60 lbs a year to no change.

Good luck!

No, I don't check my blood sugar at all. The doctor didn't mention anything about that. My diet is supposed to be correcting this, but it isn't. Basically the way she explained it to me was that no matter what I eat, whether it be lean chicken, beans, veggies, or a jelly donut, my body treats it like it's all the jelly donut. I eat beans, veggies, and chicken and my blood insulin will still surge, because my ovaries will not stop producing the testosterone that is causing the insulin resistence.

So she said we are different from diabetics. Diabetics don't have the cysts on their ovaries causing the insulin resistance. PCOS women do. So the foods that don't cause blood sugar spikes still spike insulin because that's the only way our bodies know how to handle food- any food, period.

Anyway, it was so interesting. I hope this medicine works and I'm not super sick the first day!

I would double check what she told you.

From everything I've read about PCOS, the problem isn't the ovaries. Testosterone isn't created there, but it sure affects them! What I've learned is that it's our pancreas that isn't functioning correctly, which sets off a series of mishaps in our endocrine system, which results in wacky hormones, including testosterone.

This means that treating the source of the problem is to treat to our diet/exercise/blood sugar, rather than treating the symptoms like elevated testosterone.

My earlier doctors just wanted to treat the symptom and the first doctor who diagnosed me with PCOS put me on BCP and told me that's all I needed to do because it would balance out my hormones. Well, it took me a long time to understand that BCP weren't a "fix" and I wasn't fine.

I hope the Byetta works. Keep reading on PCOS, there's lots of resources here and online.

Good luck!

You might want to go to an endocrinologist because that does not sound right to me. Foods that aren't high in carbs/sugar don't cause insulin spikes IMO. I've been controlling my PCOS with strictly diet and while no two people are the same your body doesn't treat protein as if it's a doughnut.

How do you know your blood sugars aren't good if you have never been tested for them? If she's a doctor why didn't she test your fasting blood sugar? That is kind of scary to me honestly. My friend almost died because her doctor put her on vitamin D and she became toxic and was in the hospital for months- ALL cuz her doctor didn't test her vitamin D before putting her on insane amounts of it. With something that can alter your blood sugars it's even more imperative to have those numbers checked.

I was put on metformin when my blood sugars were fine and it made me ILL- I gained 15 lbs before I figured out what was wrong, and now that I'm off of the medication I'm STILL struggling with that gain- I've still got 9 of those lbs to lose before I get back to where I was before.

I would get your fasting blood sugars checked and your a1g checked before starting this medication. If the numbers are high then I would start.

She's one of the leading doctors on the East Coast for PCOS patients- she has an entire practice dedicated to it, and is associated with one of the top ten Medical Universities in the country. It took me 3 months to get an appointment. I've been reading about PCOS for the last 10 years, and yes it's the cysts on the ovaries that cause the high levels of testosterone. She said I'm one of the most extreme cases of insulin resistance she's ever seen.

Took the Byetta this morning, and I'm very surprised I didn't feel the needle. I did feel a little nauseated for the first two hours. I had a very small breakfast. I am staying away from animal products (apart from being disgusting and toxic, I think because Byetta slows down digestion, nausea would be associated with anything that's hard to break down- meat and dairy). So I'm sticking to my "Eat to Live"-type diet. I'm just glad I wasn't yacking all morning!

So far I feel energetic and pretty fabulous.

Can you provides links to what your doctor has written? I'd been interested in reading more.

I know that there are PCOS patients that don't have cysts, so it's very interesting that she believes the cysts create the excess testosterone.

Thanks!

No need to get defensive I was just concerned since I've seen a lot of doctors who claim to know about PCOS but don't really.

Well I hope it works out for you- I'd love to read what she's written- what's her name?

Let us know how it goes. Mary's PCOS FAQ sugests Byetta as a 5 star option.

http://pcosfaq.com/#Byetta

A.