I think endos are a lot less likely to be the ones who let you take the lead than PCP’s; they have too much invested in their own expertise. But I wouldn’t mind having an endo who was willing to enter into a real partnership, sharing their knowledge but willing to hear my experience and integrate the two.
The only endo I ever saw was just briefly in Guatemala to confirm my own realization that I was Type 1, not Type 2 as I’d been misdiagnosed (in the U.S.). She listened as I outlined the five reasons I knew I was LADA and checked off each one. I shared some of my experience and showed her Using Insulin by John Walsh. She asked if Using Insulin was available in Spanish (it is not) and told me she wished all her patients were like me (involved in my own care). I returned to the U.S. soon after that, but I think she would have been a nice “partner” to work with. She even asked me to call her by her first name (Flor de Maria - how beautiful is that?) which to me is symbolic of equality.
If you can’t get a prescription from your endo or primary doctor, you could always try another doctor (it helps if you have one in your family!). Since test strips aren’t really going to cause harm since they’re not a drug, many doctors won’t think twice about prescribing it. In fact, when my wife was pregnant and there was a concern about gestational diabetes (which it turned out she didn’t have), her doc prescribed test strips which I ended up using. Of course, she used some of mine too, to make sure her BG’s were staying in check during pregnancy.