I just spoke to my wndo about putting me on hormonal birth control to help manage my blood sugars. I have the worst time controlling my numbers during my period and it makes my a1c higher than I think it should be. I have been using a non hormonal IUD for birth control and today I made the switch to the pill. My endo recommended I use a pill that will give me a period only every 90 days so I don’t have to deal with the blood sugar fluctuations every month. Up until this point, I was strongly against hormonal birth control and refused to alter what my body does naturally just to not get pregnant. I’m having a serious moral dilemma about starting the pill and I’m wondering if anyone else feels this way. The only reason I started the pill was to have better control of my diabetes. If that wasn’t a concern for me, I would never have started the pill. I guess I’m just looking for input from other Type 1 women who might be dealing with a similar struggle.
Hi Alex I don't think i have the same struggle, since the pill is going to help you get better control of your BG i think this is awesome. to me it makes totally sense, i also have BG fluctuations because of the hormonal up and down my body goes through every month. might be worth a try myself. while i understand you dont wanna change your hormone household to not get pregnant, i think it is a different story with diabetes. it makes your life easier.
tell me if it helps!
happy holidays
SC
Disclaimer: I'm not dealing with the same struggle, but I have taken birth control pills in the past and wanted to share my observations of your situation. Feel free to disregard my comments.
It seems to me that you're taking the pill to assist with blood sugar control and for you, the lack of ovulation is simply a side effect. I don't think it's any different than your use of insulin, which also alters what your body does naturally -- i.e., naturally, your blood sugar would soar without insulin. I also don't think it poses any more of a moral dilemma than the IUD. Without the IUD, your body would allow the egg to become fertilized. Good luck. It sounds like this might be a good way to help control the BG.
I understand how you feel. I only went on the pill in order to not get pregnant, not to control my diabetes, but when it caused me to not have a period at all I stopped it because I felt this was just not natural, not normal and I was messing with my body in a way I wasn't comfortable with.
I was on the pill for around a year if I remember correctly and it made no difference on my blood sugars...even though I do run higher during my period, I still ran higher even though I was on the pill.
My advice, despite what I just wrote, is to give it a chance. I was uncomfortable with what the pill did to my body, but I understand how the body and the medication both work now and am much more open to the idea. If you are not wanting to pop out little ones AND you're having trouble with highs during your period, then the pill may be able to help with both all at once. Give it a chance, you can always stop if you don't like the results. It's always your choice.
I'm on birth control to prevent pregnancy, but since I get my period at the exact same time each month I can make a new basal program on my pump to help control my numbers. It's helped me, I guess.
I second Shadow's view here, and I take the pill first and foremost so as to avoid hormone-related BG drama, the anti-pregnancy effect is a bonus. I am generally opposed to adding medications that 'tinkers' with something that isn't normal (insulin and symlin getting 'approval' in my nebulous medication approval system because they replace/mimic regularly occurring hormones and systems, whereas metformin doesn't pass muster because a normal person doesn't have any; clearly this isn't full-proof, but its my general guiding theory).
Potentially the other way to look at is that the pill (I'm not sure about all of them, but at least some) generally trick your body into thinking you're already pregnant and that keeps eggs from doing their thing, so its only unnatural to a certain extent; ditto to not having/getting a period every month- pregnant ladies don't get one for nine months and thats completely nature-controlled.
Can I ask why a pill though and not a hormonal IUD?
