Hi. Sorry for this very long post, but I'm so confused about my new (or perhaps latent) prediabetes diagnosis which was given to me as an offhand aside during a visit to an endocrinologist regarding blood tests for possible low thyroid function (which is borderline hypo and untreated but also shifting into normal at various times). I've had the ogtt test done probably once or twice a year over the past 6 years, more as the family Dr. humouring me regarding issues over weight gain and difficulty losing. They were all normal except for the 2 repeats that I had done this year. The fasting result is always normal but the 2 hour reactive rate is now consistently 8.2 mmol. I had the hba1c test done recently and yet it shows normal.
OTOH, I've also had the IGF-1 test (acromegaly) done at the same time as the oggt test and it shows a slightly above normal level. (I also don't seem to have any outward signs of acromegaly). Also, there is no diabetes in my family at all and my 8 years older sister who drinks a fair bit and is more overweight than me and is not a vegetarian like me, had normal levels when clinically tested for this. In fact, we both had the same take out meal with high but not insane carbs and I tested our blood levels with my Contour meter and hers was well within normal and mine were high prediabetes level or slightly over 7.8 mmol (granted, I did test at 1 and 2 hours post meal).
I'm 6 years into menopause with no hrt treatment or particularly bad symptoms except for excessive belching, esophageal spasms, and a stubborn weight bmi index plateau that has me borderline obese, but not quite, despite being a long time vegetarian, having no alcohol or soda for years, if ever, and no sugary junk foods. I slowly lost around 15 pounds over the past 2 years after being mildly obese for 4 years while looking after ailing parents at home and sometimes only eating one meal a day, particularly when they were in and out of hospitals. As an aside, up until age 50, I was always at a slim to normal weight, so being borderline or mildly obese is alarming, especially when I'm having great difficulty reversing it.
A final odd symptom is that over the past year I now have somewhat thinning hair on my usally thick crown and coarse dark hair coming in gangbusters only under my chin, much like PCOS sufferers (Poly cystic ovary syndrome) of childbearing age, again something I didn't have with my periods. One of my testosterone levels is elevated, but again, only mildly, which it might have been for many years, but wasn't an issue cosmetically speaking. I've had the contrast dye pituitary MRI scan done and they said they couldn't find any tumours.
All this to say that I find all of these things converging at once and which seem not to be the typical experience of someone finding themselves suddenly labelled as pre-diabetic. Typical of most doctors, my endocrinologist will not offer me any more support on these converging symptoms except for the usual diet and exercise advice which I have been doing for the past year to little or no effect. She also won't put me on thyroid med's because of fluctuating levels and possible heart interference (which I can appreciate, having current but intermittent bouts of tachycardia, and also having had them since age 20-50 when I was a slim to normal weight). I've also had a long standing problem, which continues to this day, with frequent and heavy urination, something that began in my mid teens but which were not due not infections or bladder abnormalities.
Apart from unexplained blurry vision off and on throughout the day, I'm not constantly thirsty, don't crave sugar or particularly eat a lot of it, and as a vegetarian, have very little fatty foods, also having greatly reduced dairy over the past 4 years as mostly a milk drinker. I'm fairly physically active, and water has been my main beverage for years, but this difficultly losing weight paired with this new prediabetes diagnosis has me alarmed that every day that this condition persists (for whatever strange hormonal cocktail going on inside my body) it is doing untold damage to all of my internal organs (mild fatty liver revealed in scan 2 years ago), and with aching joints and rapdily advancing osteoarthrits at a relatively young age- late fifites. I'm anxious to stop this situation and wondered if anyone else out there with prediabetes had some of the same or similar sets of unique symptoms and if they were successfully treated either with medication, operation, or lifestyle.
OTOH, I've also had the IGF-1 test (acromegaly) done at the same time as the oggt test and it shows a slightly above normal level. (I also don't seem to have any outward signs of acromegaly). Also, there is no diabetes in my family at all and my 8 years older sister who drinks a fair bit and is more overweight than me and is not a vegetarian like me, had normal levels when clinically tested for this. In fact, we both had the same take out meal with high but not insane carbs and I tested our blood levels with my Contour meter and hers was well within normal and mine were high prediabetes level or slightly over 7.8 mmol (granted, I did test at 1 and 2 hours post meal).
I'm 6 years into menopause with no hrt treatment or particularly bad symptoms except for excessive belching, esophageal spasms, and a stubborn weight bmi index plateau that has me borderline obese, but not quite, despite being a long time vegetarian, having no alcohol or soda for years, if ever, and no sugary junk foods. I slowly lost around 15 pounds over the past 2 years after being mildly obese for 4 years while looking after ailing parents at home and sometimes only eating one meal a day, particularly when they were in and out of hospitals. As an aside, up until age 50, I was always at a slim to normal weight, so being borderline or mildly obese is alarming, especially when I'm having great difficulty reversing it.
A final odd symptom is that over the past year I now have somewhat thinning hair on my usally thick crown and coarse dark hair coming in gangbusters only under my chin, much like PCOS sufferers (Poly cystic ovary syndrome) of childbearing age, again something I didn't have with my periods. One of my testosterone levels is elevated, but again, only mildly, which it might have been for many years, but wasn't an issue cosmetically speaking. I've had the contrast dye pituitary MRI scan done and they said they couldn't find any tumours.
All this to say that I find all of these things converging at once and which seem not to be the typical experience of someone finding themselves suddenly labelled as pre-diabetic. Typical of most doctors, my endocrinologist will not offer me any more support on these converging symptoms except for the usual diet and exercise advice which I have been doing for the past year to little or no effect. She also won't put me on thyroid med's because of fluctuating levels and possible heart interference (which I can appreciate, having current but intermittent bouts of tachycardia, and also having had them since age 20-50 when I was a slim to normal weight). I've also had a long standing problem, which continues to this day, with frequent and heavy urination, something that began in my mid teens but which were not due not infections or bladder abnormalities.
Apart from unexplained blurry vision off and on throughout the day, I'm not constantly thirsty, don't crave sugar or particularly eat a lot of it, and as a vegetarian, have very little fatty foods, also having greatly reduced dairy over the past 4 years as mostly a milk drinker. I'm fairly physically active, and water has been my main beverage for years, but this difficultly losing weight paired with this new prediabetes diagnosis has me alarmed that every day that this condition persists (for whatever strange hormonal cocktail going on inside my body) it is doing untold damage to all of my internal organs (mild fatty liver revealed in scan 2 years ago), and with aching joints and rapdily advancing osteoarthrits at a relatively young age- late fifites. I'm anxious to stop this situation and wondered if anyone else out there with prediabetes had some of the same or similar sets of unique symptoms and if they were successfully treated either with medication, operation, or lifestyle.
Last edited: