Freestyle Libre vs Dexcom G6

Diabetes Technology Glucose Monitoring
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Hi all -

Seeking some input. I am starting on a CGM to help me manage tracking my blood sugars. My doctor gave me the Free Style Libre to start, and is now suggesting I switch to Dexcom G6. I am still waiting to see if my insurance will cover it (they covered the Libre no problem).

Just curious about the opinions of others. Pros/Cons etc.

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You will find people on this forum who hate the Libre, and people such as myself who love it. I can trust it about 90 percent of the time, to provide trending arrows and BG readings that match my meter. The Dex has those alarms you may need for things like overnight lows etc. My HMO wont cover it readily and I cannot afford it. The Libre sensors are now running me $32 a month. If I could afford to try Dex, I might, but there is no way. I would say try the Libre while you wait…it sure is easy to use, and very comfortable to wear. Stays stuck for the full ten days. There is an excellent group on Facebook (one for USA one for Europe I believe…) with really helpful Libre tips etc.

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@Laura_S thanks for the feedback. So far the Libre Sensor is working OK for me, but I am so new to this that I am not sure I am even thinking of all the things that might not be working! I have to see how much I pay for a month. I am still trying to figure that out. I am on day 7 now and it is still stuck to my arm just fine. I’ll keep you posted!

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Great! Some people, btw, have had them fall off. I can barely get mine to come off after ten days. :wink:

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I am using Libre and prefer it to finger sticking. I believe the Libre is a great first step into the CGM world and a good way to get a 24/7 view of your BG patterns.

I am on Sensor 10 and they have all worked the same.

  1. They report a lower BG than my finger stick meter by 10-15 %.

  2. They stick on me too well. I have caught the sensor a few times when removing a t-shirt and on door frames. The adhesive is 100% stuck to me but only 80% stuck to the plastic disk of the sensor. I wonder if people who are having problems are moisturizing prior to applying the sensor.

I find that the reported BG seems low but the over all BG pattern is correct.

I like Libre. I use it to dose. Alarms from full cgm and pump integration would really annoy me.

BUT. Thats me.

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Oh same here. I removed one once, or rather it would only let me remove the plastic part. I thought my arm was going to come off…lol. I just use alcohol swabs that they provide. I keep expecting the thing to hurt but it hasnt yet hurt to insert. Quite often the number is almost exactly the same as my Roche Guide meter. I’m going to use a Contour meter when I run out of Roche strips. Will see how close those two are.

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Thanks gladtobehere,

I roof feel like my sensor readings are lower than I’d expect but the patterns are good. I’m stilll getting used to the lag between finger sticks numbers and cgm numbers. Looking at my CGM numbers, my highs seem to peak about 2 hours after my finger sticks were.

Some people say their numbers are the same on both all the time… I just think I’m not there yet. During times of slow increase and slow decrease there much closer than in the 2-3 hours right after a meal.

Really appreciate all the input. I’ll be trying to take this off in 2 days - wish me luck!

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Good luck! :wink:

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Sorry if this is asked a lot, but I am trying to decide between the Freestyle Libre and Dexcom G6 for CGM for Type 2.

If we ignore the differences in costs, Which of the two products provide more accurate and meaningful results that would help better manage my diabetes?

I will be very interested in the pros and cons of each product.

Thank You

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I am T1D, and use dexcom, but have done trial with Libre. For me, accuracy was about the same.
The main pros for me, for dexcom is that I get alarms, and lower costs by restarting sensors (G4). Libre is not covered by my insurance.

If you are not using insulin, you may not have concerns for alarms. The Libre can be used with additional products to give alarms, but I have not tried them.

The Libre is great if you think of it as replacing your fingersticks, and get readings 24 hours a day to analyze patterns to make food or treatment changes. Will give better visibility to your after meal BGs, impact of exercise, similar to dexcom.

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I’m on the same boat, T2 i have used the freestyle on and off this year and has helped my A1C a lot but i really would like to use the G6, mainly for convenience and being able to view my BG on my iwatch at any given moment. But being T2 has made it very difficult to get any CGM through insurance. Just had a meeting with my diabetic educator today and she is trying hard to get me something. Goodluck

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Thank You for your insights, the Dexcom G6 definitely seems to be more advanced in proactively alerting to sugar highs and lows.

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Similar experience. When trying to remove the sensor, the adhesive will remain on my skin after the sensor has been removed. It does stick better to my skin than to the sensor.

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I just tried petroleum jelly today to get my Libre sensor off and it came off in seconds and that’s with Skin-tac (no residue either :smile: ). I just used a little on a cotton pad and massaged it around the sensor and viola!

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WEARING BOTH!
And finger sticking to compare.
Dexcom win but by a smaller margin than I thought1

I have been wearing a Libre Sensor for a year now and decided to switch to the Dexcom because it is supposed to be more accurate and has the alarms. I started the Dexcom 3 days before the Libre sensor wore out to be able to compare the two.

The differences

  1. I thought the Libre sensor popped off easy if it got hit wrong, the Dexcom started coming off with my first shower the first night I was wearing it. I am allergic to so many adhesives but can handle Elmer’s glue lol so I put that all around it and have wrapped my arm in an ace bandage. I will have to try the Skin Tac to see if I can wear it.

Libre win

  1. I love the constant flow of the Dexcom without waving the reader under it.

Dexcom win

  1. I hate the need to keep the reader within 20 feet of me to have a reading, If I leave range I have to wait to get a reading.

Libre win

  1. I have graphs on both, I have arrows pointing trends on both

Tie

  1. Libre actually catches changes faster, my numbers changed faster with the Libre sensor, is it the 5 mintues delay of readings with the Dexcom? It might be that, no biggy on this though.

Tie

  1. The Dexcom has alarms Yea, Uh wait annoying lol!!! I quickly have turned off most of the alerts and set a lot bigger range for them to go off at so they don’t.
    I haven’t figured this one completely out yet as there are aps that could have given me alarms for my Libre. But the Dexcom comes with them and I actually kept thinking about getting an ap for the Libre and didn’t soooo

Win if it doesn’t annoy me for Dexcom

  1. Because of being able to calibrate the Dexcom, it seems to be more accurate. I say seems to be because I could mostly rely on the Libre, I would fingerstick and double wear the Libre sensors the first day to find out how accurate they were. Then adjust for it. A couple of times they were up and down and those I called in for a replacement. Also if they were off by 30 points plus I would call it in as I hated to trust dosing by adding 30 points to my numbers.
    But the first day the Dexcom was all over the place, higher, lower, close. The calibrations I did seem to be keeping it mostly within 5 points now. But it is interesting as I keep reading the Libre and the Dexcom and they are steadily about 25 points apart. And that is what I was basing my dosing on the Libre. I am also finger sticking right now but the Dexcom has had, even with the calibrations, a few more off numbers. I say that as the Libre was off by more but I could count on how off it was consistently. But I will give this to the Dexcom because it is closer to the right number all the time with the calibration ability.

Dexcom win

So this is a 3 to 2 win (2 ties) for Dexcom, but it didn’t win by as much as I thought it would? The grass is always greener thing?

And I have to think the Dexcom has to win because of the accuracy factor, that would be mostly because of the ability to calibrate it at the beginning. I’m not sure everyone would double wear or finger test that first day to know the off amounts by the Libre, so that really is a biggy in the long run. When I was in the endo’s office and showing them the Libre reading 99 and my Dexcom reading 126, both with a sideways arrow, it just shows what a difference it can make. Don’t dose at 99 maybe okay at 126 but I would probably give myself a unit of insulin through my pump for the 126. If I didn’t have an insulin pump I probably wouldn’t dose the 126 either.

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