Any opinions on which you think is a better long term insulin
My experience with the two drugs is that Tresiba lasts me about 40 hours, in a relatively flat basal. Toujeo lasted me about 22 hours with a relatively flat basal. I prefer Tresiba.
Your mileage may vary.
1 Like
I’ve been loving my Tresiba for almost a year now. The only downside for me is that it’s not “approved” for pregnancy and my doc said I would have to go on levimir if/when I got pregnant. I’ve considered not worrying about it, because I’ve heard some women stay on Tresiba when pregnant and the only reason its not “approved” is because they just never tested it in pregnant women. I have an appointment on Wednesday so might ask her about it then.
Toujeo was rebranded from Lantus, was it not? Lantus didn’t work well for me, but I haven’t used it in a long time now.
KCCO - here is the Tresiba label https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2015/203314lbl.pdf
It says There are no well-controlled clinical studies of the use of insulin degludec in pregnant women.
Patients should be advised to discuss with their health care provider if they intend to or if they become pregnant
It goes on to say Subcutaneous reproduction and teratology studies have been performed with insulin degludec and human insulin (NPH) as a comparator in rats and rabbits. In these studies, insulin was given to female rats before mating throughout pregnancy until weaning, and to rabbits during organogenesis. The effect of insulin degludec was consistent with those observed with human insulin…
Here is what Levimir’s label says - Pregnancy - The effect of pregnancy on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of LEVEMIR has not been studied (see PRECAUTIONS, Pregnancy)
With Levimir the rat and rabbit embryofetal development studies that included concurrent human insulin control groups indicated that insulin detemir and human insulin had similar effects regarding
embryotoxicity and teratogenicity
Tresiba and Levimir basically have the same label when it comes to pregnancy. I am not sure why you are being told to switch. Levimir has no advantage per the label for pregnancy.
Thank you, George! I will definitely be bringing it up at my appointment
tomorrow. I think my doc’s reasoning was that Levemir has been around a lot
longer and the double-blind trial studies on animals are worth less than
its long history of use in actual humans. Which I can understand her
thinking that way, but I don’t particularly agree with for my situation.
I’m guessing she will probably “allow” me to stay on Tresiba if my
numbers are good, but the long time it needs to take affect when you change
doses might be the real dealbreaker. We’ll just have to play it by ear, I’m
sure.
I can’t speak to specific concerns involving a basal switch for MDI during pregnancy, but I switched from Levemir to Tresiba, without any ramping-up or phasing in, I just switched that day. For me the same number of units has worked well and it was no problem. Good luck!
I am hoping that will happen for me. I am doing something wrong. Maybe eating wrong. Really have to depend on myself to do this. My dr is no help. I know very few people with type 1. It seems everyone is type 2. I just do allot of reading It seems to be trial by error. Lantus never worked the full 24 hrs.
You really have to be your own advocate sometimes, Kathy. I had a terrible
doctor at first. He wasn’t supportive of any of the natural remedies I
wanted to try for things, he wasn’t up on the latest research, he never
recommended that diabetics go on pumps, and I doubt he actually knows what
a cgm is to this day. One day before my appointment I looked around his
waiting room and saw only pathetic, sick old people. I determined that
wasn’t going to be me, so I found a new doc in a new practice, got on a
pump and got a Dexcom and couldn’t be more pleased with them. They were
actually shocked that I wasn’t on a pump yet when I went to my first
appointment. They’re super willing to work with me when I need to change my
insulin, even if I want to change up my whole system of treatment, lol.
And did I mention I now drive 4 times further to this new doctor? Worth it.
Good luck to you, Kathy!