I am a type 1, diagnosed at age 8. When I hit puberty around age 12 I also developed PCOS which also came with insulin resistance. My doctors never suspected anything else other than type 1 was going on, so treated my high BG’s with more insulin, and assumed I was just being a ‘bad’ diabetic and eating too many carbs and not checking my BG’s often enough and not bolusing properly, etc. Which was all true…
Well time goes on and I am finally diagnosed (at age 35) with PCOS and put on the birth control pill (to even out hormones) and Metformin (to help with insulin resistance)… and raise my insulin doses as well!
Time goes on and I develop hypothyroidism which makes my insulin resistance a million times worse. I am put on Levothyroxine and the insulin resistance gets worse. My endo raises my insulin without even considering the cause, the reason, or anything…just a simple go-to “MORE INSULIN”! as if this is curing anything, as if this isn’t making things worse for the patient.
Time goes on and the insulin resistance gets worse despite diet and exercise and Metformin (2K mg) and ‘controlling’ all the illnesses. My endo raises my insulin without any other inquiry into the issue…
WHY?! Why not actually try to find the root cause, or causes, and fight them? Why not at least try instead of just treating the symptoms? Why not take a step back and say, ‘hey, what’s going on here, what are we missing? Is there something different we can try?’ Do they not realize that it’s making life miserable? Do they not realize that they are treating one symptom/side effect and causing several more in it’s place?
It’s not just my one doctor…it’s every single doctor I’ve ever gone to!
WTF, man!?
I know, I know, it’s not just the doctor’s, it’s big pharma, and lack of scientific studies to find cures and/or better treatments, it’s so much that we have little to no control over. I’m just tired of my bad luck in health being used to line peoples pockets. I’m tired of no one in a place of power actually caring about the patients lives.
I totally, totally get this! This is exactly the reason people get tired of “conventional” medicine and try “alternate” approaches, in many cases. I know, because I’m nearly there. I haven’t experienced it with diabetes, but have with severe allergies. I’m on a half dozen daily medications for allergies, carefully avoid my known allergens, and take another half dozen or so medications as-needed for allergies and still have allergy symptoms every day, have eczema flares, get sinus infections, and all allergists, ENTs, dermatologists, and gastroenterologists (all of whom I see for allergy issues) can offer are more medications, usually steroids. Part of it is that doctors just don’t know much about allergies and don’t have much to calm them down other than antihistamines and steroids, but still super frustrating.
Oh, I totally agree here @Jen. I get so annoyed when I am sent to see a dermatologist who then tells me I have eczema (which I have had for at least 40 years now), and then goes on to tell me the basics of how to care for it and prescribes a very expensive cream that does not work. Total waste of time and money for me.
So sorry you are going through this. I have some input for your thyroid issues. Do you have hashimotos? Keeping tsh suppressed at 1 or below can help stop the autoimmune attacks on the thyroid and may help with your Bg issues. I’ve just started t3 in addition to levo because my t3 is low and tsh went up. So I’m not absorbing and converting t4 and I’m also on too low a dose prolly. A lot of people who are hypo/ hashis etc get insulin resistance. Diabetes and thyroid diseases make each other worse. Not converting t4 can cause that. But you will prolly still need to increase insulin because the thyroid hormones do have that effect. So far I think I’m improving on t3 a bit.
I’d find a different gyn maybe to start addressing the PCOS issues. One of my friends had that but I’ve forgotten what the treatment was then.
I don’t have Hashimoto’s, just general chronic hypothyroidism due to a case of thyroiditis I had. I see my endo tomorrow and am going to ask her if I can switch to an NDT because several type 1’s I’ve spoken with who also have hypothyroidism have said it helped them lower insulin resistance and in turn lose some weight. But, I do need to press my endo to run tests as well, she hasn’t checked my t3 since April, and my t4 since not long after that… she seems to only be concerned with TSH which angrifies me because this tells me she’s slacking off and isn’t caring about my entire health and doing all that she can to treat all of me. I know that there are more ways to treat hypothyroidism than just one synthetic pill, and there is more to it than just TSH level. You’d think a good doctor (like she used to be) would try harder to help more. She used to be so on top of things and eager to do all she could. I feel like she’s burnt-out or something. It’s sad, she’s been my endo on and off since the early '90’s.
I think a lot of what I said applies to any hypothyroid. You need to keep tsh at a level where you feel good. Also people say ignore the numbers and treat by how you feel. I think trying NTD is a good idea too. It has both t4 and t3. I understand how you feel about the docs. I had to argue a lot to get any thyroid treatment and tests. I was so surprised when my doc agreed to the t3 and my other ideas. I would not even know that I have Hashimoto’s if I hadn’t read the anti-body test because my doctor never even told me. Around the time my father was also diagnosed with Hashimoto’s- his was much worse with much higher and antibodies. I think those of us with type one and hypothyroid tend to have a much harder time controlling blood sugar and have worse swings in blood sugar too. Don’t know what state you’re in but in some states you can do your own thyroid testing at online labs. I’m in New York and they don’t allow that. But you could probably do that for not too much money and get all those levels tested and go to your doctor and talk about all of it. Or go to another doctor maybe a functional doctor. That is too bad your endo has checked out. I hope you get some relief from all of this I know how hard this is. lately I have just been so exhausted I do not have the energy to do anything really beyond my regular stuff and even that is very difficult. If I could get rid of anything it would definitely be the diabetes because I would be able to manage the thyroid issues much more easily. and my life would be so much better.
My endocrinologist is freakin’ amazing when it comes to diabetes, but even he just tests TSH every three months for me and seems to add in free T4 about once a year.
I don’t have hypothyroidism, but ever since my thyroid went out of whack (Graves’) my blood sugar has been much more volatile and harder to control even when my thyroid levels are in the normal range. I don’t know why, but it definitely does something to impact blood sugar and energy levels.
