Dexcom v Freestyle Libre in pregnancy

[Emck]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience in comparing these two CGMs in pregnancy?

I’m currently about 7.5 weeks, for the first while I was using a Dexcom and was hitting pregnancy targets about 80-90% of the time. I was having a lot of hypos but started to take that in the last week.

I’ve now moved back to libre, as where I live dexcom currently not funded on the NHS. I thought I could save myself £150 per month, as I’ve been advised not to use Control IQ on my Tandem pump during pregnancy.

My last few days on the libre have been really tough. I don’t feel like it is accurate as the Dexcom. It seems to overreact to rising and falling blood glucose.

This means that Libre seems to be about 2mmol out when I am checking post meal blood sugars. As you can imagine this is really frustrating for trying to meet targets, so I’ve been doing lots of finger pricks instead to give me the real picture. My hospital only really uses libre and I feel like the doctor is going to read me the riot act as it looks like I’m constantly out of target!!

The overnight alarms are also driving me a bit mad. The night before last i had 13 compression lows, plus two real ones. Last night I had 7 compression lows plus two real ones, plus alarms telling me I had gone above target after correcting. I hadn’t, the libre was showing 9.6mmol and my blood sugar was 6.8mmol.

Argh!! Shoul I just give up on libre and go back to Dexcom???

 

[Jaylee]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience in comparing these two CGMs in pregnancy?

I’m currently about 7.5 weeks, for the first while I was using a Dexcom and was hitting pregnancy targets about 80-90% of the time. I was having a lot of hypos but started to take that in the last week.

I’ve now moved back to libre, as where I live dexcom currently not funded on the NHS. I thought I could save myself £150 per month, as I’ve been advised not to use Control IQ on my Tandem pump during pregnancy.

My last few days on the libre have been really tough. I don’t feel like it is accurate as the Dexcom. It seems to overreact to rising and falling blood glucose.

This means that Libre seems to be about 2mmol out when I am checking post meal blood sugars. As you can imagine this is really frustrating for trying to meet targets, so I’ve been doing lots of finger pricks instead to give me the real picture. My hospital only really uses libre and I feel like the doctor is going to read me the riot act as it looks like I’m constantly out of target!!

The overnight alarms are also driving me a bit mad. The night before last i had 13 compression lows, plus two real ones. Last night I had 7 compression lows plus two real ones, plus alarms telling me I had gone above target after correcting. I hadn’t, the libre was showing 9.6mmol and my blood sugar was 6.8mmol.

Argh!! Shoul I just give up on libre and go back to Dexcom???

Hi,

I’ve been prescribed the Libre 2. Thinking about it now using them for years… (Male, so can’t help with pregnancy, nor am I a pumper.)
One thing I do to avoid compression lows is site the sensor inside the arm. (Opposite where it is recommended. Away from muscle tissue.)

The next is I use a third party app called “Diabox.” (There is also xDrip.) Theses apps can be calibrated. Alarms can be tailored for personal sanity…. (You need a code to do this with Diabox. More like a “jailbreak password.) which helps.

Congratulations on your child..

 

[EllieM]

Hi @Emck and congratualtions on your pregancy. My oldest is 31 now but I had some horrendous hospital inducing hypos during pregnancy, and during my second pregnancy I had friends round to watch me when I was home alone with my toddler. I would have found a cgm invaluable.

I've used both systems and I think an issue here is that dexcom can be calibrated if it it consistently out, whereas libre cannot. So maybe you could look into using add on software to calibrate your libre??? (I see @Jaylee has posted while I'm writing this)
And of course, phone ypur team and explain the issue, you won't be the only person to have experienced this.

As a dexcom user, I sometimes (but only sometimes) calibrate, dexcom customer support recommend against it unless you really have to.

But you already now how dexcom works in pregnancy....

Good luck.

 

[Emck]

I’ve asked my team to look into a CGM for me during pregnancy, but haven’t heard anything yet!

Fingers crossed for some good news!

 

[Emmah89]

I’ve just switched to Dexcom from Libre and find that Dexcom is so unreliable! I see you have found the opposite which is strange, I have had to calibrate my Dexcom 5 times and I’ve only been using it 2 weeks. At first my Libre hadn’t run out so I had both on at once for 2 days and I have to say the Libre was way more accurate. I even finger pricked (which I havent done for 3 years whilst being on Libre) and they all matched my Libre with the Dexcom sometimes being up to 4mmol out! Anyone else have any experience like this?

(T1 19 weeks pregnant and struggling with time in target )

 

[EllieM]

I’ve just switched to Dexcom from Libre and find that Dexcom is so unreliable! I see you have found the opposite which is strange, I have had to calibrate my Dexcom 5 times and I’ve only been using it 2 weeks. At first my Libre hadn’t run out so I had both on at once for 2 days and I have to say the Libre was way more accurate. I even finger pricked (which I havent done for 3 years whilst being on Libre) and they all matched my Libre with the Dexcom sometimes being up to 4mmol out! Anyone else have any experience like this?

(T1 19 weeks pregnant and struggling with time in target )

I think some people find the libre works better for them, others prefer the dexcom. It isn't one size fits all. Is there a reason you can't go back to the libre?
Personally I've moved from G6 to G7 (and found the G7 initially less reliable than the G6 but now prefer it), after giving up the libre 1 when I became allergic to it. Not so impressed by the reports I've read on the dexcom ONE.

Which dexcom are you using? If you've only been using it two weeks you may just have a bad sensor. Also, it's worth pre-inserting it 12 to 24 hours before starting it because it is definitely less accurate in the first 24 hours. According to dexcom it's because your body has an initial reaction to the filament which can make it read low. They also advised me to try not to calibrate for the first 24 hours, so I find I definitely need to pre-insert it.