Is Metformin Safe During Breastfeeding?

While breastmilk for a baby provides a booster to a healthier life, in women, breastfeeding helps to prevent various illnesses, including diabetes. However, if you already have diabetes, you might be wondering if you can take antidiabetic medications like Metformin during breastfeeding. The use of maternal medication during breastfeeding should be carefully evaluated to ensure that it does not negatively impact maternal health or the health of the baby. Since breastfeeding plays a crucial role in a baby’s growth, it is important that mothers stay healthy during breastfeeding. Read this post to know about the safety and health benefits of Metformin in breastfeeding mothers.

What Is Metformin?

Metformin is one of the most effective and safe treatments for type 2 diabetes. Patients typically consume the drug alone or with other medications, such as insulin, to treat diabetes. Metformin falls in the ‘biguanides’ class of drugs. Apart from glucose control, metformin also offers numerous other health benefits (1).

What Are The Health Benefits Of Metformin While Breastfeeding?

Here we list some of the health benefits of consuming metformin while breastfeeding.

1. Regulates blood sugar levels

Metformin helps control the amount of sugar in the blood of lactating moms. The drug also reduces the quantity of glucose that you absorb from your food and the quantity of glucose that your liver produces. Metformin also raises your body’s response to insulin, the naturally-occurring chemical that regulates glucose in your blood (2).

2. Treats metabolic syndrome

Women who suffer from metabolic syndrome and face obesity issues post-delivery. As obesity leads to excess weight accumulation in the belly, the lactating mother can develop insulin resistance. As a result, she may suffer from type 2 diabetes. Metformin lowers insulin resistance and helps women suffering from metabolic syndrome lose weight (3).

3. Prevents the risk of heart problems and stroke

Consuming metformin helps reduce triglyceride levels and LDL cholesterol levels in nursing mothers. Low triglyceride and LDL cholesterol levels ensure your good health and prevent the risk of heart disease and stroke to a great extent.

4. Treats polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

Lactating women with polycystic ovary syndrome tend to suffer hormone imbalance that results in the production of harmful levels of male androgen hormones in their bodies. As a result, women with PCOS tend to gain weight, experience endometriosis, and have irregular hair growth patterns. If you avoid checking androgen hormone levels, you can be at a high risk of developing uterine cancer, high blood pressure, infertility, or heart ailments. Consuming metformin helps reduce insulin resistance, which in turn reduces the androgen levels in women and prevents health hazards due to PCOS (4).

Chloe Bridge, an ardent vlogger, has PCOS and uses Metformin to manage her symptoms. Sharing her experience, she says, “At first, I wanted to go all-natural and see if I could improve my cycles, weight, acne, and all the PCOS symptoms without medicines. I took up a healthy lifestyle, and during these four months, I was exercising and eating the best I have in a long time but only lost 1.5 kilos. I went back to my GP and explained what I’d been doing over these four months and the results that I had or had not seen, and they agreed that metformin would be the next thing.

“Although it has not been a life-changing thing, metformin did help me. I will say that my skin has been so much better again, and the need to constantly snack has been so much better on the metformin, and I feel like my hair is healthier. So all the symptoms that I’ve had with PCOS and have been slightly better on it and also although I’ve not lost weight, I’ve not gained it either (i).”

5. Encourages appropriate weight loss

Consuming metformin lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels in lactating mothers and prevents additional weight gain. In fact, the drug helps women get rid of obesity and maintain appropriate weight post-delivery thus improving their postpartum health.

In spite of the numerous health benefits, the use of metformin during breastfeeding is a subject of concern for some women due to fears regarding infant development and infant health.

Is Metformin Safe While Breastfeeding?

Metformin concentrations in breast milk are low, and the infant’s exposure is a tiny percentage (about 0.28% as per some studies) of the maternal dose (5). Therefore, the drug is safe for lactating mothers and their babies. Nevertheless, consult your doctor and consume only the prescribed quantity of metformin to regulate the blood sugar level while breastfeeding. Your doctor will be sharing critical information related to medication safety to prevent the risk of harm to you and your little one.

Can Metformin Prevent Lactation Insufficiency?

Metformin has been explored for its potential to increase breast milk supply in a study. The study involved mothers with low milk production and signs of insulin resistance. Ove­r four weeks, they took either metformin or a placebo. The research did not show a significant boost in milk production for either group. Notably, some who completed the metformin treatment showed increased milk output, but only a fifth experienced improvement. Some participants reported some gastrointestinal side effects like diarrhea and nausea, e­ven causing one participant to quit because­ of severe cramps. As this evidence comes from a small pilot study, the role of metformin in preventing lactation insufficiency remains uncertain (6).

Curious about the safety of taking Metformin during pregnancy? Gain valuable information on this topic through this video, examining the risks and considerations.