is there any kind of natural thing anyone does to stop this ridiculousness? i have been diabetified since nov 2011 but up till a couple of months ago i had been spared this fun part of the beetus. my sugar is all out of whack here. i feel like as soon as i dare to add that extra unit of basal its gonna all go back to normal and ill have a gross night hypo.
Perhaps birth control pills? In the correct dosage they should level out the hormonal changes. On the other hand these pills have the potential to totally alter your metabolism: basic metabolic rate, long term effects on fertility etc.
In our Glucosurfer project the documentation of the menstrual cycle ranked very high on the wishlist of our users. This way you could develp counter strategies like increasing the basal dosage in these periods. Of course a case of trial and error until you know your body very well.
I haven't heard of a way to lower hormones, but I do know that I hate the 2nd two weeks of my cycle. My sensor daily overlay looks like a roller coaster ride. I usually increase my basals by 20% and really watch for lows, the other thing I do is change my carb ratio because I noticed the significant and sustained spikes were mostly post meal. I wish I could get better control during that time too, its totally frustrating!
Diabetified--love that.
Good to have hormone levels tested. If your doctor won't agree, there are reputable labs online to do it yourself. I've read the most accurate are saliva testing.
Not uncommon to have estrogen dominance due to an overwhelming amount of environmental estrogenics. With estrogen dominance, other hormones like progesterone in transdermal cream are used to balance. Some women are lacking testosterone. An incredibly complex system.
If your estrogen levels are normal, you don't want to do anything to lower them. That's courting major trouble.
Hey pancreaswanted, I agree with Holger that birth control pills may be your best bet. If nothing else, the pills would probably help balance your hormones and maybe keep them more consistent so at least you could find a consistent basal pattern for those times each month. I would think it would help with the timing of any basal changes because it would be more predictable.
Of course, that said, my ob-gyn made me get off of birth control pills when I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 27 - but that was almost 26 years ago and the mindset today may be different.
I am on the other end of the life cycle and am going through menopause with all the hormonal fluctuations that come with it. It's definitely no fun. My blood sugar will spike or drop randomly by 40 to 60 points when I am having hot flashes.
I've had to learn to wait to see if my bg will come back down on its own before I correct because I've learned the hard way - corrected then five minutes later I'm headed south with lots of IOB. If I were you, I would try to log and chart for several months and see if you can find any kind of pattern in timing that might help you set temporary basals.
Gerri is also right - female hormones are all about the balance of hormones. I suspect that I may be estrogen dominant due to low progesterone levels but I have not been tested. I have not tried any of the hormonal creams because I am afraid I will end up doing more harm than good.
I tell you what, though... Women with diabetes are warriors! :) Good luck!
I think this is one of the most frustrating parts of diabetes (for me, at least). My blood sugar goes crazy during the last half of my cycle, and the worst part is it's NOT totally predictable in terms of timing or effect, so I can't just do the same thing every month to prevent the chaos. But this means I spend half my time with "easy" to control diabetes (where I can stay within about 3 - 12 most days) and insanely hard to control diabetes where I can spike to 20 at the drop of a hat despite increasing all my pump settings (basals, I:C ratio, correction factor).
Unless your doctor does a complete hormone panel (not likely), BC pills may or may not help. Different brands have differing percentages of hormones. Since most doctors go with a brand they're familiar with, that part's difficult.
BC pills work by supressing ovulation, of course. This also supresses other hormones (DHEA, testosterone, pregnenolone & androstenedione), in addition to estrogen. DHEA is an adrenal hormone involved with BG levels.
thanks for all of your replies. i really dont want to do birth control as i wanted a kind of natural nonprescription like cure. i was under the impression that this hormoe thing the week before your period is normal but there are people advising tests. does everyone have these tests done when they get these bs fluctuations before periods?
yesterday was ridiculous with highs and lows and omg i really dont need this teaching a class of 15 year olds....grrr.
thanks again and if you have tried anything natural, im all ears. i will have to get the apple cider vinegar and just drink half the bottle.
menstruation estrogen and progesterone and the insulin hormone are closed linked when you go through the menstruation and yes i use to go through hell with it also.speak to an endocrinologist about ways to manage blood sugar, particularly if these are a result of other hormone interactionswith insulin ratio when you are going through cycle in increase of units.Some women become insulin resistance by the homeostasis model of insulin resistance i use to.I have been a Human Biologist a long time and how would of loved of synthesized and invented something to control our hormones,But it long way off.Yes there pill but as you say dont want use it and it not for every one also.Good luck and hope things get better for you
I had the best results on birth control, and was on it for several years after my son was born. BUT, I also had a pre cancerous breast lump removed over a year ago, and the oncologist told me absolutely NOOOOOOO to birth control or anything that is estrogen related. They want to decrease my estrogen so Im on Tomoxifen, lol and kinda almost in a medically induced menopause...period only lasts for about 2 days now.
Birth control pills do nothing to help the problem. I've been taking them for years and I still have this problem.
According to my doctor, the menstral cycle has nothing to do with high blood sugar. He's also a man and doesn't seem to have a clue! I say, it definitely does. Birth control does not help. I take it and have seen no difference whatsoever. I adjust my basal rate, but I usually end up having to just stick it out.
Hello Carla Yes i use have a male endo like that also who said i would never have children or marry,Well am married and have two children in there late teens and early twenties.
I should introduce him to an endo I had who stated stress didn't effect BG. When I insisted it did, he gave me a condescending, patronizing look. Could hear what he was thinking--another emotional woman.
Know what you endured with that. I get the hysterical woman attitude from my doctor about hypothyroidim. Women deemed hysterical were given hysterectomies as a "cure" not that long ago & some still are. Hmmm, a too dominate male. Let's castrate.
A dear friend had an undiagnosed parathyroid tumor. She went to four or five doctors who told her she had an emotional problem, gave her tranquilizers & referred her to counseling. Never mind that calcium being excreted caused her problem. When she was about to give up that any doctor would take her symptoms as physical, she found a doctor who diagnosed her properly.
this is the highest i have ever woke up, omg, 186? wtf!!! if i normally take 5 units of basal at night, how much extra should i add? ive already put it up to six but its like injecting sugary air into me.
I am not a friend of birth control pills and I would not recommend to take them to improve glucose control. Still they have the potential to improve the situation. To my knowledge women have statistically more control problems in the week before the menstrual bleedings. On birth control pills these bleedings are intentionally designed into the pills. Some manufacturers will make this period very short and others have totally removed it. If the hormonal levels that will pepare for the bleedings are causing the glucose problems then those pills with light or removed bleedings will make a difference. So it is more a matter of brands to improve control. Here is an excerpt I have found here:
Why do women still menstruate while taking the pill?
The answer has to do with the history of birth control. In 1958, two doctors named John Rock and Gregory Pincus revolutionized contraception with the first clinical trials of oral contraceptives. Rock and Pincus decided that the pill would be more acceptable to women (and organizations like the Catholic Church) if it preserved women's natural menstrual cycle. So, they manufactured the pill to mimic a typical 28-day cycle. This is why many birth control packets contain three weeks worth of hormonal pills and one week of placebos or sugar pills. Withdrawal from the hormones on the fourth week triggers bleeding that's similar to menstruation. However this "withdrawal bleeding" is usually shorter and lighter than a regular period because the uterine lining hasn't been thickened.
According to many women's health experts, menstruation serves no biological purpose if a woman is on birth control. In fact, a woman can purposefully skip her period by omitting the placebo week and starting a new pack of pills, patch, or ring. Birth control manufacturers have caught onto some women's desire to have less frequent periods, and there are now several brands of the birth control pills on the market that don't have a placebo week.
I am on an insulin pump. When it’s that time of the month, I do a temp basal of 10 or 15 percent. Helps keep my BG from getting too high.
If you are on shots, maybe work with your doctor to increase your long acting insulin by a percentage.