Metformin Smell (Page 2) (Top voted first)

why does it smell like fish?

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REPORT

I have, in fact, stopped my intake of Metformin completely since Friday. I have noticed a concomitant reduction in odor which would seem to correlate with the levels in my system. The order seems to be :
1) Stool
2) Urine
3) Sweat

I have gone down the chain to no very little smell in my sweat, mild smell in my urine and a still pronounced odor in my stool. The persistence of this material is an issue with areas on my clothing, sheets and furniture that came in contact with my sweat to still have an odor. This smell is reducing with time suggesting either outgassing or oxidation.

A cursory search of the literature would suggest no material on the subject (except a little about the smell of the compound itself). However a search of the web seems to show others with my symptoms with an empirical support
for my conclusion (the metformin is the cause). We know the compound
itself smells, and my theory is that I have become saturated with it. There appear to be some threads which attribute this to poor generic manufacture, but I think that's just screed. I think the pros are smart enough to encapsulate the stuff so you don't smell or taste it in the process of
handling and administration. The interesting part is that I cannot
necessarily predict when the stuff will have this effect. This does lead to some concern as the thought of Ketoacidosis or Lactic acidosis is paramount in my mind. I am not seeing any symptoms of these conditions nor have I noticed any changes in my urinary habits that would suggest kidney issues.
OK I have been whgining about other posts her is my own. This is an excerpt of a letter I sent to my new doc today. I had a really bad experiance where that smell was coming out in my sweat! Gah !! it is the compound itself in my opinion

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04/23/2015, Lifestyle Changes Requires Diligence. I was diagnosed with T2DM last year and put on Metformin from 50mg 2x a day up to 1000mg 2x a day. My medication has never ever had an odor from the bottle or pills itself. But let me tell you I have been through rings & hoops fighting "body" odor. I shower 2 x a day, I was sweating profusely and I associated it with being menopausal, later to be prescribed "hypercare" for underarm sweating and odor. I shave armpits and private areas constantly, I rotate my bath soap & shower gels constantly, I douche on a regular basis. This seems to be the ONLY way to keep my hygiene in check. I keep underarm deodorant in my purse, at work locked in my drawer. I also keep on hand at work -in my purse, those small FD & DG body sprays cause I never know when I'm gonna have a Metformin bathroom pureed "stool" run! I have to take the medicine keep my glucose levels in check IT just makes me extremely extra cautious with an acute awareness to be vigilant about the care of my body & breath, MY Method to the madness is that I constantly rotate bath soaps, toothpaste, mouthwashes, deodorants and feminine washes & spays, deodorant panty liners but I only use vinegar & water douches.

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My urine was so bad I had to clean the toilet after each use. Told my Dr about it today and she had not heard any thing about it. Do not know where to fill my Metformin. Guess I will call all the pharmacy's in my town and have them to check #'s

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Yes, it is too something to worry about! With all the horrible cheap fillers being used these days by money grubbing foreign countrues - killing our animals and probably us too. The brand I got from Walgreens is fine - even old pills dont take on a smell. But the cheap kind sold by Walmart and as I know of, Strogers hospital in chicago smell like something toxic Ive smelled in basements and old chemistry laboratories. The stink makes me nauseus and I get diarrhea. It cant be healthy - it may be evilly intended, in any case should be taken off the market.

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I was diagnosed 2 days ago & prescribed Metformin, when I opened the bottle I noticed the odor and totally agree with Joe Blow as it was my first thought.
I will seek a different source or medicine if at all possible.

Hooty

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I recently started taking Metformin, and this is my second refill-the first two bottles I didn't notice anything, but this third batch smells like fish.

It's been a few days, and so far I have been less hungry and most food has been unappetizing-which didn't really happen with my earlier pills. And today I had bad diarrhea. I thought it might be because I missed a couple days because the pharmacy (Rite Aid) was closed where I ordered my p.script so I took only two a day instead of three....

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During 1 yr on Fishy smelling Teva Metformin HCL 500 tabs, I had daily debilitating nausea. Today my doctor said people should be warned about these malodorous pills. I am allergic to them. Within 1 day of switching to another mfg, I no longer have any nausea. I have been diabetic 10 years with good control, but I had other problems with Teva's product like constant weight loss, unpredictable high and low blood sugars, super bad breath and flatulance. Worst year of my life!

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My last script Metformin 1000 mg was by Teva and it smelled like urine; pharmacist said metformin is made from sulfonamide urea obtained from horse urine and likely that Teva cut manufacturing costs by leaving out masking agent heretofore used.Others are likely cutting costs also. My doctor verified that horse urine is the source for the sulfonamide urea. Horse urine, hmm, explains the smell. Makes me wonder, if they admit to horse urine in our meds, what else are they not telling us? Color me pissed.

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I have been on metformin since 2005. I lost 60 lbs on the stinky kind. Then, Rite Aid changed brands a couple of years ago & I started having trouble controlling my blood sugar & I stopped losing weight. I switched my script to WalMart & voila, sugars quickly got under control & started losing weight again. I have been having trouble again controlling my numbers and gained 8 lbs. since Oct. 2009, about a pound a month. I get a 3 mo. supply each time and about to run out of this one, but noticed it DOES NOT stink. For me personally, I think the smelly ones have more real drug in them. Metfromin is known to cause stomach upset, nausea, & diarrhea...this is a normal side effect. I will shop around to see if anyone has the smelly kind.....I prefer it. Also, my mom & my uncle also take it, & also noticed higher #s on the non stinky kind. As soon as they switched to a different manufacturer (the stinky one), their glucoses immediately lowered and they lost weight, too.

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I never lost weight in all the years I was taking Metformin, whether it was the horse pee brand or not. I am totally disgusted, however, that horse pee is being used to formulate this drug, as is it used to formulate Premarin. They use pregnant mares for that drug and make them stand in little crates where they can't turn around, on wire floors so the urine flows through and gets collected in containers below the floors. The thought of how horses are treated just so us inferior-minded humans can control our blood sugars and hormones is very disturbing. So I have now switched to a once a day injection for my diabetes, called Victoza. It is not insulin and is very easy to use. The needles are short, small guage sharps in a pen that you just twist to the prescribed dosage, squeeze a little fat on your belly, thighs or wherever you have it, poke it in (you can't even feel it at all) and push the end of the pen with your thumb to inject the drug. My doctor said that everyone loses 10 pounds; some lose 50 pounds. I've been on it for less than a month and I've already lost 4 pounds. I'm thrilled! And no more stench! You realize to that when you ingest something that stinky that it eventually oozes out through your pores. Do you really want to walk around life smelly like an ammonia-soaked dead fish?

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Please, please, keep in mind, that we as pharmacist have NO CONTROL over what manufacturer our store carries (aside from privately owned pharmacies).

As a chain pharmacy, we receive our supplies from warehouses that purchase product in bulk from wholesalers. They will purchase whatever is cheapest - which is why you will notice we randomly change manufacturers at any given time. As pharmacists, we have the ability to special order certain manufacturers from sources outside of our main company, but ONLY at patient requests. So please, don't blame your pharmacist...

Secondly, the smell of the medication has nothing to do with how it may or may not work. Have you ever truly smelled aspirin? Are you aware that it can be made into vinegar using a simple organic chemical reaction? Same thing applies for any and all medications - just because it has a funny smell does not mean it does or doesn't work properly. (and yes, I am fully aware that metformin smells terrible, but if you notice, the ER versions do not... simply because they are coated differently and it masks the smell. Otherwise, same drug)

As far as the Tylenol recall goes - if consumers were more educated on the situation, perhaps people would understand that there is NOTHING WRONG with the product. It was a voluntary recall, it was not mandated by the FDA, but done simply because the company felt that in spite of the low chance that there could be a problem, it was best to err on the side of caution. It was recalled because of an odor given off by the wooden palates used to ship the product - had nothing to do with Ortho McNeil or Tyelnol or the manufacturing process. It was simply a result of a chemical used to preserve the wood.

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I've been on Metformin for a few months now and have not noticed any real changes except a little weight loss. But I also started eating a lot better and exercising more right at the same time. I can't claim to know what the drug does for anyone. I have done a lot of research on the reason behind the smell and whether it is dangerous. Unfortunately, as a consumer only, I don't have access to a whole lot of medical studies and such. However, from what I've been able to gather, the smell is simply from what the drug is made of. I caution most of the people posting here that are blaming any symptoms on the smelly drug to know that the placebo effect is a very potent one. Once you notice the smell, if even sub-consciously you think something is wrong with the drug, your body may start to have symptoms simply based off of your sub-conscious. It may not be the drug at all!

I'm not a medical professional, so don't take my word for it. And I am the biggest advocate for questioning EVERYTHING, especially your doctors and government regulated prescriptions. If you don't trust the drug you're taking, tell your doctor, and ask him/her to prescribe something else. Most people know their own bodies, and your fears should not go ignored.

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This is an update to my post on 6/3/2010. I had my prescription transferred to the Kroger pharmacy after checking with them to make sure the generic metformin they carried was the smelly kind (it is). I started this new script on 6/15/2010, and my fbs on 6/16 was 96. My avg. on the old brand had been running 115-125. I have not had an fbs over 105 since starting the new brand AND, I have lost 5 lbs. I spoke to my PCP about this since this is the 3rd time I've noticed this. He told me that since metformin is a generic, those manufacturers are permitted up to a 20% variation in the actual active drug content & so it is probably not in my head, but rather, an actual variance in the drug amount/content. For me, I will continue to pay close attention to whether my metformin smells & if it does not & my sugars go up again, I'll switch to a pharmacy who carries the smelly kind immediately. It actually costs more to add the protective coating on the pills that masks the smell, so I figure companies who do this make up the cost difference by exercising their option to use 20% less active drug. I think it's a rotten thing to do because they know most people prefer the coated kind that masks the odor & can increase profits this way....my opinion, but I've been around long enough to know that if you increase the cost of a component, you look for a way to cut somewhere else to balance things. Good luck to you all.

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weezy--I used to get mine at Wal Mart & it used to be the smelly kind. They then got a new contract with a different manufacturer & I didn't realize it. I don't know how they ndgotiate their contracts & if they are different for different regions. All I know is that I started having trouble controlling my bs, fbs leaped a good 25035 points & I started gaining weight. I decided to open the bottle & take a whiff & that is when I noticed there was no smell. When I asked the Wal Mart Pharmacist when they changed brands, she couldn't tell me for sure but it had been at least 6 mos., which correlates w/my higher results & weight gain. That is when I switched my prescription (6/15/2010) to Kroger, as I know my local store used the smelly kind. My fbs was immediately lower the very next morning. Now, instead of 115-130, my levels are in the 80's-90's AND I have lost 12 lbs. & still losing. I can only attribute it to the metformin switch. One bad thing is that since the switch, I have suffered with constipation. It was just the opposite before the switch.

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For the first time in 15 years my metformin smells like Urine. I took it back to Kroger Pharmacy and they replaced it but it smells the same. This was the first time that I have ever had it filled by Kroger. The smell is sickening.

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Ididn't have a problem until I got the prescription filled at Walmart

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Yes i just switched to generic to save money and got it at CVS and it smells terrible! It is so offensive but I force myself to take it. This can't be good! I am going to complain!

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I take metformin off and on, and I have also noticed that my stool takes on a distinctive and unpleasant odor when I'm taking metformin.

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I've been getting Metformin 750 mg from PrimeMail Online Pharmacy for the last couple of years. This last batch stinks very badly, like some kind of feces & fish. Something is wrong with those pills to have a smell like that. I'll not take a pill that smells like that without some explanation. I'll be going to the pharmacy in town here to find out what's up. Maybe they know. 5/5/2013

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Mine smell like candy i get mine from Walgreens i take the 1000mg ones when i switched from the 500 to these they started smelling like candy

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