Peri menopausal/menopausal or anyoen struggling with hormones?

Hi, I’d added this to an old post, but actually think it might be better on a new one, so here goes… seems like there were a lot of women out there having issues managing hormones and diabetes.

I’m 45 and peri-menopausal and experiencing by quite a margin the worst BGs of at least the last 10 years (which covers being pregnant and then breastfeeding for a few years so not exactly an easy time in itself). I started on HRT just over 3 months ago and i thought BGs might be settling down, but no.

Extremely insulin resistant before a period, but then also incredibly insulin sensitive at lots of other seemingly random times when i take a correction dose for a big high only to have it plummet like a stone within an hour. Can have a day where I’m 95%TIR, then only be 25 the following day.

It’s difficult not to feel totally despondent. I’m on a medtronic pump and use the Libre and have had t1 for 35 years. Thinking about seeing if i can try the omnipod just to get more “real estate” for infusion sites, just to try to take that potentially complicating factor out of the equation.

Hope you’re all doing well and staying strong ? :muscle::v:

Yes!!! My insulin requirements have gone thru the roof in the past 3 or so years. I can’t take hrt due to a heart attack a few years ago. I’m also on a Medtronic and going thru about 300 units in a day and a half. My carb ratio went from 1:8 to 1:4. My basal has almost doubled. Taking insulin for a high feels like taking water. The only thing that’s helped is trying to go low carb and just trying to keep on top of my bs before it goes high. Like taking a correction at 150 when I used to wait until 180 or 200. My gyn prescribed an anti depressant to help with the hot flashes.

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Yes. I am 43 and am not in the thick of peri-menopause, but I have been experiencing this recently. It’s extremely hard to predict at times, and very frustrating. I am not yet experiencing other peri-menopause symptoms, but I am certainly not looking forward to it. It only occurred to me recently (after talking to a (non-diabetic) friend who is a few years older than me and starting to go through it) that I could be at the very beginning stages and that this could explain the variations in insulin sensitivity.

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Yes, I went through this, too. Now that I’m in my late 50s, it has calmed down, but I still have occasional times where I’ll go for about a week of insulin resistance. When this happens, I go low carb and intensify my Dexcom monitoring. Often I increase my overall basal rate during that time, and I now have a setting called “Hormone Hell” that I use (I’m still on an Omnipod Dash).

I wonder if our bodies still continue a hormone cycle even after we don’t have periods? It’s kind of fascinating. It’s also fascinating, in a disgusting way, that nobody in the healthcare biz seems to give a crap about menopause and diabetes.

Take heart–it gets easier.

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Thanks so much for your comment. Hopefully as more women have come into medicine in recent years and the numbers continue to rise there will be more research in this area, but yes completely agree it’s appalling how much is unknown about diabetes and menopause and those post-menopausal years.

I heard an interesting podcast the other day that was saying that women work on a 28 day cycle and have this “7 day week” imposed on us, but it doesn’t really work for us… while no one wants to be a slave to their hormones i do think that we (all humans) should be more accepting that certain things will be easier in week one of our cycle than they would perhaps be in week 3 or 4 for instance. Diabetes affected in the same way and then the peri- and menopause just make things ten times more tricky again.

I have also just read that menopause interferes with thyroid function, particularly how thyroid meds are absorbed, in those with hypothyroidism so that’s another thing to check. It might explain my pattern of constant lows at the moment.

As always, knowledge is power. Take care and thanks again.

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Could well be, Brianna1. I use the Balance app which was set up by a menopause gp here called Dr Louise Newsome. I’m able to log all my symptoms on there which is helpful - certainly initially in keeping track of exactly how often i was feeling anxious/tired/etc. when things can all feel v woolly and indistinct.

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Definitely feeling the variability in recent months is due to starting peri-menopause for me too. I am 44 and it really has been going on for the past 4-5 months now. I have breakthrough bleeding all the time (no apparent pattern I can detect) and similarly random insulin resistance. The most frustrating T1-related symptom, however, is something that I have no name for, but basically affects the timing of insulin vs. food absorption. I was religious about pre-blousing but now often at dinner this would lead to a drop in BG below what I want within the 1-2 hours after the meal, corresponding suspension of insulin from my ControlIQ and then a predictable high rise in the middle of the night. Last night I got ahead of it by not bolusing well into my meal and that seemed to work. We’ll see if I can replicate it tonight and in the future… :slight_smile:

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