Dear friends, (particularly the gals),
How do you adjust your insulin for your hormone levels? I have been going sky-high during the luteal phase (that’s the two weeks before your period right - I get them confused) and nothing brings me down except gigundus amounts of insulin.
I’m 42. I don’t know if this is perimenopause? Or normal?
The other possibility is that my teeth woes are causing high blood sugar. I had a dentist mess up a crown and that caused another tooth to crack and he messed that one up and now I have to get a root canal and I have a low-grade gum infection. (on antibiotics)
Maria…don’t get me started! Just kidding. I have always noticed the rise in #'s usually a week before. I guess we become insulin resistant. I have just started on the pump and was cruising along until all of a sudden…I am too old for this stuff! I have a setting for my basal rate called “horms.” I am 55…I hope you don’t have 15 or so more years of this to deal with.
Good luck with the teeth! Life is just one big party, eh?!
I used to have the same probs before periods, between that and craving carbs my blds weren’t great, I tried everything to get blds down. They did settle amazingly once periods were over. Don’t have a clue what to say about your teeth I am certain that many people will advise you as to what antibiotics do to blds, they used to drive me crazy, caused more probs than enough. I hope Sohair can help you out here, she’s great, my doc never really believed that periods affected blds. He was a man yes. Sorry men out there.
I’m on the pill and have noticed that my bs drops during the inactive pill week and I have more lows. Still experimenting with my pump to find a way to better deal with it.
I always know when my period is coming because a day or 2 before, I need a ridiculously large amount of insulin (like 25-50% more), then suddenly drops usually the day it starts. I usually double my meal boluses, and just expect to be on a crazy rollercoaster for a day or two. My doctor usually says something like ‘whatever works for you’, but I have yet to have a real explanation.
Just a suggestion, I also tend to get more lows during my period week… I just set another basal pattern for this period to .9u/hr instead of 1u/hr. Pumps are such great tools for stuff like this!!!
You have to think of insulin as a hormone (that’s what it is), so it’s totally feasible that other hormones affect the body’s absorbtion of it. I don’t have an exact answer for you, but I would think that they are definitely related, and I would just keep a log of the changes and then adjust your insulin intake accordingly. Another option is the infection. How long have you had it? Because there is a direct relation between infections and high BGs… typically when I’m sick or have a minor infection, I need to bump my basal rate on my pump up about 20%!
A lot of people I have met have basal rates set for ‘that time of month’. I tend to also go high the week prior…and then the minute it starts, I go low. Quite annoying!
