Possible LADA? Unexplained highs and symptoms.

[diabquest]

I’m female, mid 30s, been underweight my whole adult life. Quite active. Good diet if sometimes not sufficient.

I thought I had a bad UTI but I’ve now realised the symptoms are more in line with thrush. Over the last few weeks I’ve also found I need to urinate a lot, frequently, all through the night, and also a lot in each go. This is all very unusual for me. I’ve never had thrush before, nor do I ever usually need to get up to use the toilet. I’m drinking the same but increasingly thirsty (probs because I’m peeing it all out!)

I’ve had blood tests for unrelated things in the past few months, and on several occasions my blood sugars have come back high, despite not having had a large meal previously. This was dismissed, though at the time of these blood tests I didn’t have any of these symptoms I’m describing.

I’m tired a lot, but wondered if this is partly because I’m not sleeping well. Also hungrier, but also attributed this to not sleeping well.

My question is:

Could these symptoms be attributed to diabetes? I have a family history of autoimmune conditions but no family history of type 2 diabetes. The slow onset could point towards type 2, but I thought given my age and my weight/family history it would be more likely LADA.

Does LADA ever initially present with intermittently unexplained hyperglycaemia?

 

[EllieM]

Hi @diabquest and welcome to the forums.

Many forum members are asleep right now so you may have to wait till morning for a response from some LADA folk.

I'll tell you what I know, as a long term T1.

LADA can certainly develop slowly and we have plenty of people posting here who got it as an adult, some much much older than you.

Forum rules rightly don't allow us to diagnose (we aren't doctors and even if we were we don't know your medical history). So while your symptoms sound to me like they could be diabetes and LADA is a possibility (though thin people get T2 too) there's really nothing much I can say apart from suggest you see your doctor, since there are lots of other conditions that could also match to your symptoms.

(And there are more types of diabetes than T1/LADA and T2...)

Have you ever had an hba1c done? That tends to be the first test that a GP does to diagnose diabetes. My suggestion is that you go to your GP with your symptoms and tell him your concerns.

Good luck, and once more welcome.

 

[diabquest]

Hi @EllieM, thanks for your reply!

Thanks also for your reassurance. I’m always reluctant to see my GP, particularly since I feel like I’ve spent so much time bothering them in recent months! So it’s useful to hear that you think there is justification in visiting again with these symptoms.

I have never had my HbA1c tested, no. And in hindsight I’m a little annoyed that they completely disregarded the unusual and repeated hyperglycaemia. I wonder if it would have been approached differently had I been overweight and a more “typical” candidate for (type 2) diabetes/diabetes onset > 30 years - who knows!

Thanks again.

 

[AloeSvea]

@diabquest - are you sure you have never had your HBA1c (blood glucose over the last three months) tested? It's a pretty standard test included in what they call your blood panel, or your blood lipids. If you have been going to the GP over the last months a lot, I find it highly unlikely they didn't include it in your blood tests? which you say, above, that you had taken. Also that you had high blood glucose - was that an on the spot test? Or, your HBA1c? Because if it was your HBA1c, and they discounted T2, and/or T1 and variants of, then it could be because you had a normal HBA1c? But a high (and if high - how high?) on the spot test, which they compared with your results, ie the HBA1c, over three months...

These are questions all answerable from your blood test results.... Do you feel like sharing the numbers? How you know you had hyperglycemia/what the on the spot blood tests were? And your HBA1c? Cheers!

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Yes it's important you do have an HBA1C test if you haven't had one. This would confirm if you are diabetic and your levels. If you have online access to your surgery's computer system you can look at your Coded results to see if they contain an HBA1C test result. It's certainly a possibility that you have late onset T1 (LADA)

 

[Leolady19]

I’m female, mid 30s, been underweight my whole adult life. Quite active. Good diet if sometimes not sufficient.

I thought I had a bad UTI but I’ve now realised the symptoms are more in line with thrush. Over the last few weeks I’ve also found I need to urinate a lot, frequently, all through the night, and also a lot in each go. This is all very unusual for me. I’ve never had thrush before, nor do I ever usually need to get up to use the toilet. I’m drinking the same but increasingly thirsty (probs because I’m peeing it all out!)

I’ve had blood tests for unrelated things in the past few months, and on several occasions my blood sugars have come back high, despite not having had a large meal previously. This was dismissed, though at the time of these blood tests I didn’t have any of these symptoms I’m describing.

I’m tired a lot, but wondered if this is partly because I’m not sleeping well. Also hungrier, but also attributed this to not sleeping well.

My question is:

Could these symptoms be attributed to diabetes? I have a family history of autoimmune conditions but no family history of type 2 diabetes. The slow onset could point towards type 2, but I thought given my age and my weight/family history it would be more likely LADA.

Does LADA ever initially present with intermittently unexplained hyperglycaemia?

I was diagnosed as a lada after a UTI wasnt going a way with antibiotics and a was diagnosed as Coeliac 5 year earlier !