ReviewDiabetologia2017
Metformin use in pregnancy: promises and uncertainties.
Review in Diabetologia, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Preexisting Diabetes and Pregnancy: An Endocrine Society and European Society of Endocrinology Joint Clinical Practice Guideline.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Guideline
- Fetal and post-natal outcomes in offspring after intrauterine metformin exposure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of animal experiments.Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association · 2024Pooled it
- Neonatal, infant, and childhood growth following metformin versus insulin treatment for gestational diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2019Pooled it
- The treatment of booking gestational diabetes mellitus (TOBOGM) pilot randomised controlled trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2018Trial
- Metformin Exposure in Pregnancy and Childhood Developmental Outcomes.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- The mTOR/AMPK signaling axis in placental dysfunction and preeclampsia: mechanisms and therapeutic targeting with metformin.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- [Management of hyperglycemia in pregnancy (Update 2026)].Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2026Review
- Metabolic, microbial, and pharmacological stimuli elicit distinct lipidomic and cytokine responses in the human placenta.Molecular human reproduction · 2026Article
- Metformin Attenuates Spontaneous and Stimulated Myometrium Contractions in Rat Uterine Strips.The Eurasian journal of medicine · 2025Article
- The Effects of Maternal Endocrinopathies and Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors During Pregnancy on the Fetus and Newborn.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Longitudinal integrative cell-free DNA analysis in gestational diabetes mellitus.Cell reports. Medicine · 2024Article
- Metformin use in pregnancy: What about long-term effects in offspring?Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2024Article
- Absence of Metformin in Fetal Circulation Following Maternal Administration in Late Gestation Pregnant Sheep.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2024Article
- Relationships Between Exposure to Gestational Diabetes Treatment and Neonatal Anthropometry: Evidence from the Born in Bradford (BiB) Cohort.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Article
- Position paper of the Italian Association of Medical Diabetologists (AMD), Italian Society of Diabetology (SID), and the Italian Study Group of Diabetes in pregnancy: Metformin use in pregnancy.Acta diabetologica · 2023Review
- Article
- Immunomodulatory Effects of Metformin Treatment in Pregnant Women With PCOS.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2023 · on this mapArticle
- Metformin Impacts Human Syncytiotrophoblast Mitochondrial Function from Pregnancies Complicated by Obesity and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in a Sexually Dimorphic Manner.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Challenges and Possible Solutions.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- [Clinical practice recommendations for diabetes in pregnancy (Update 2023)].Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Metformin has been prescribed in pregnancy for over 40 years; for much of this time, use has been limited both in numbers and geographically, and the evidence base has been confined to observational studies. In early years, perceived safety concerns and lack of availability of the drug in many countries acted as a barrier to use. More recently, RCTs have begun to examine the role of metformin in pregnancy in much-needed detail. However, this evidence base has been interpreted differently in different countries, leading to very wide variation in its current application in pregnancy. In this short review, we will discuss the history of metformin in pregnancy and highlight some of the key clinical trials. We will then consider some of the remaining controversies associated with metformin use in pregnancy, most important of these being the potential for long-term 'programming' effects on the fetus as a result of metformin being able to cross the placenta. We will also consider clinical situations where metformin might be avoided. Finally, we will discuss some future directions for this drug as it reaches its sixtieth anniversary.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.