Insulin Resistant

[Bushlander]

Newbie here. 52yo peri-menopausal woman who has been experiencing blood sugar highs and lows for the past 6 years. I know it's a long time, but it's taken me that long to work out I was only peri-menopausal and not dying. Now that I'm on top of my depression and anxiety, which were brought on by rapidly decreasing hormones, I have started concentrating on my abnormal sugar highs and lows. I think it's due to extremely low estrogen which can make you insulin resistant. My GP is no good with any of this stuff, so I'm doing it on my own. Had the diabetes drink test and that came back all clear, even though it sent my sugars through the roof and it took me a good 3 hours to get back to normal. Thyroid all clear. My next blood test will be to check my hormone levels, especially the estrogen. I've been charting my cycle and have noted that when my estrogen is at its peak my sugars seem to be more normal, meaning that I don't experience lulls and crashes after eating. But for the most part of my cycle it's just that - I get this extremely tired rush after eating, but it subsides after a couple of hours. It's very exhausting and annoying because I never know what I can eat! If I happen to eat something sweet one day I may have no reaction, but the next day (or even that afternoon) I can eat that same thing again and totally crash afterwards. This doesn't just happen with sweets. A salad or meat and vege meal can have the same tiring effect after eating. I don't have any history of diabetes or anything for that matter in my family, so I'd like to think it's something simple - it usually is in my case. Just would like to know how to go about working out what the problem is and how to fix it. I'm taking HRT, but the GP says I'm already on the highest dose of estrogen. I'm thinking, get bloods done on my estrogen and progesterone and get a referral to an endocrinologist who might be able to prescribe a higher dose of estrogen. Has anybody had any experience with what I'm going through - low estrogen causing insulin resistance?

 

[Antje77]

Hi @Bushlander, welcome to the forum.

Newbie here. 52yo peri-menopausal woman who has been experiencing blood sugar highs and lows for the past 6 years.

Are you testing your blood sugar, and how high and low do you typically go?
How high did you go with the diabetic drink test?

 

[Bushlander]

Hi @Bushlander, welcome to the forum.

Are you testing your blood sugar, and how high and low do you typically go?
How high did you go with the diabetic drink test?

Finally got a hold of my diabetes test results and the highest reading was one hour after having the drink and it was 5.7 mmol/L. I know that's within the range and shows that I don't have diabetes, but that doesn't help me with the symptoms I'm experiencing. Am going to get my estrogen, etc, levels tested tomorrow.

 

[KennyA]

Finally got a hold of my diabetes test results and the highest reading was one hour after having the drink and it was 5.7 mmol/L. I know that's within the range and shows that I don't have diabetes, but that doesn't help me with the symptoms I'm experiencing. Am going to get my estrogen, etc, levels tested tomorrow.

I think there is sometimes a risk (even with those of us who do have diabetes) that we ascribe everything that happens to it. An OGTT peak of 5.7 mmol/l would seem to indicate that you have an effective and functioning insulin response. That's not to say you don't have the symptoms you describe, just that they are unlikely, given the test result, to be caused by blood glucose;levels/dibetes.