Metformin may be as safe as insulin during pregnancy, 11-year data shows

Metformin is safe to use during pregnancy to manage diabetes, with no long-term adverse effects on the children born and their mothers for at least 11 years after childbirth, according to research presented Sunday at ENDO 2024, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Mass. This is the first study to look at longer term effects of metformin use during pregnancy.

“Metformin has been extensively used for managing raised blood glucose values in pregnancy for many decades now. It is the only blood glucose-lowering oral medication approved for use in pregnancy,” said Deep Dutta, M.D., D.M., Director of Endocrinology at CEDAR Superspeciality Healthcare in Dwarka, New Delhi, India.

The researchers cited that data are only available up to roughly five years after childbirth in most studies they found in their analysis. They sought to understand the longer-term effects on mothers with diabetes and their children beyond previously published data.

In their literature review, the researchers analyzed data from 10,117 children-mother pairs taken from seven different study cohorts.