Birth Control and Diabetes

My endocrinologist has recommended that I begin birth control to stop my periods completely as they are wreaking complete havoc on my diabetes control. Some months I cannot get under 200 around this time and some months like this last one I ended up in the hospital because of constant lows and all of a sudden needed little to no insulin. This seems to all be around the time of my period. I am a fan of no meds and am very hesitant to do this. Any of you on birth control? How does it affect your diabetes control? Their thought is that if my periods are completely stopped and I take birth control without stopping that my hormones will become stabilized and my blood sugars more predictable. HELP! I am exhausted on this blood sugar roller coaster!!

I took birth control and it helped make my periods more predictable, and thus how my blood sugars would act more predictable. I didn't take it to stop my periods, I just took it normally (3 weeks of a pill, 1 week of a placebo), but since it made everything more regular, I was able to change my insulin accordingly. What seems pretty common for most people, is that they have insulin resistance (highs) the week or so leading up to their periods, and then insulin sensitivity (lows) the week of their period. That is exactly what I experienced, so I adjusted my basal rates accordingly. I'm on an insulin pump, and I found that having the ability to vary my basal rates so much at any given time was extremely helpful in dealing with the hormonal changes that come every month. I don't know if you're on a pump or shots or what kind if treatment you are using, so it might not be as easy for you to make adjustments as it would be with a pump or MDI. I'm also not sure how things would be if you didn't have a period at all, though. Any way, I hope that offers some insight for your situation. Good luck!

I've been reading about your bg roller coasters since you started here, and I am frustrated for you.

I take 3 units of Levemir overnight for a few days after my period ends, 5 units about 12 hours before it starts, and 4 units the rest of the month. I know everyone has different situation when it hits, just like with exercise, but have you tried changing your long term 3 times a month? Before I figured this out, I was would wake up with a bg of like 250 to 300, take more long term the next few nights, and when it dropped from 5 to 3, I would have to eat like 60 to 80g carbs in the middle of the night. Totally messed with my sleep patterns.

My docs won't prescribe birth control to diabetics because it increases your chances of stroke.

Also, birth control pills increase the incidence of reproductive cancers (breast, cervical, and ovarian) in women. I know because my husband works for a pharmaceutical company that invents and produces chemo drugs, so he constantly gets research summaries.

Not saying you shouldn't take them, just making sure add that to your pro/con lists.

I'm not sure what I would do in your situation. I took birth control for painful cramps long before D. It messed up a lot for me I'm sure, including making reflux problems much worse, I started having night sweats around that time too. I guess I will never know for sure what role it played in everything but I now wish I had just taken pain killers instead which I had to do anyway. I don't think completely stopping your periods is a good idea even though it may help the bg swings. Maybe there is some other way to help this situation hopefully?

Not easy to find an endo educated in hormone balancing using bio-identical hormones & you may need to travel, but that may be a better & healthier solution. Hormone levels are tested using salvia. Many have estrogen dominance due to a number of factors, including estrogen in our food from animals given hormones, other foods are phytoestrogens & have estrogenic effects (flax, soy). To make matters worse, there are also environmental estrogens in some forms of plastics, carpets, detergents, pesticides.

Being on birth control pills continuously isn’t something I’d do.

Certainly you could try the pill for several months & see. You can always stop it.

I was on the pill at the time of dx as a T2 (age 48). I went off the pill about a year later & within a month or so, my blood sugar went down--on average-- by 20-30 pts.

In the case of the pill (& diabetes) everyone is different!

I highly recommend visiting the TuDiabetes group "Women and Diabetes"--lotsa posts on these issues.

It took me several months of logging blood sugars and my period to figure out exactly what my issues were. I took lots of notes so I was able to correlate all the info that I collected I was able to make a plan for myself on how to manage those numbers. This is something that my endo and diabetes educator wasn't able to see with just downloads from my pump. It definitely required a lot of effort to figure it out but what doesn't require effort related to diabetes?

hello
to my knowledge it can work to either schedule ones period better or leave it out completely. here in switzerland the pill cerazette is often prescribed to women with diabetes, because of less risks of a stroke. it contains only gestagen, so its also called a mini pill i think.
hope you get your bgs under control soon!
it could help to write down your cycle and compare it to your bgs, often that can already help immensely.

Are you still eating low carb, and if so, how low? Maybe a change in diet (more carbs) will help stabilize your cycle.

I'd get a 2nd opinion (maybe from a large clinic that takes a team approach), and also do research into which pill is safest.

I have the same problem. When I went to my GYN I told her what my blood sugars were around that time. She said for me to take my pills but not the last week so I won't have a period. It has been amazing. I recomend anyone with this issue to do it.

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After prayer and a lot of research I have decided that birth control is not a good option for me right now. The risks far outweigh the pros. Sigh... Last week I couldn't keep my blood sugar up. This week I cannot get it under 200 even when fasting and taking multiple boluses of insulin. I just love diabetes :)

Yes I still eat low carb because my blood sugar is just so unpredictable its the only way I can survive! The less carbs I eat the less mistakes I can make, especially when my blood sugar is running high for no reason. When my blood sugar is running lower I throw in additional carbs as much as possible. My doctor just keeps shaking his head and labeling me "brittle".

That's awesome! If I get desperate enough I will keep this in mind. My endo said it would def make things more stable but due to the hormones I would require more insulin on a daily basis, has this been the case for you?

My thinking is that menstrual cycles need a certain amount of body fat as well as decent nutrition, so maybe something is going on from that standpoint which is causing some irregularities in your cycle. So if you are on a highly restrictive diet, then it should probably be considered as a cause.

I'm in the low carb camp as well (probably 20-60 carbs a day) and generally pretty supportive of Dr B's approach, but at the same time going very low carb (under 30 per day) has some resemblance to a starvation diet. Your body isn't getting glucose from sugars, so that need is supplied from proteins and fats, including body fat; thus the weight loss that is typical.

I gotta wonder if 'brittle' sometimes just means that the doctor doesn't know what is going on.

Hang in there! I think you made the right choice for now and I hope you can figure out another way to deal with all of this. As far as being "brittle", I think that is considered to be a negative term really, my inr nurse told me she thought I was, but I don't think I have the extreme fluctuations that someone who is labile- the nicer term has, although I do have a lot of rapid fluctuations at times. I'm guessing a lot of type1 do have those though. Last night I hit 127-130 after a walk and stayed there most of the night carefully taking 1 unit corrections.. I got to the 80's before I went to sleep fortunately.

So I’ve been searching the forum for ideas on helping to control diabetes using birth control since I feel like I am similar to you and that I cannot control crazy swings based on my hormones. It’s been three years since you’ve posted this. Did you try BCP’s? Did they help? I’m going to to talk to my family doctor tomorrow to try and no-period BCP. I tried bringing it up with my endo, but he was a little dismissive and asked to talk to my OB.