• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

To be officially diagnosed or not?

Sirzy

Well-Known Member
Messages
266
Location
Glasgow
Type of diabetes
Other
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi everybody, I was hoping you could help me with a bit of a dilemma I’m having. I apologise in advance for my long posting.

I had a fasting BG test that came back as 8 in July, I was only tested as my GP found sugar in my urine after a UTI infection. She told me this probably meant I had type 2 diabetes and ordered another test. This terrified me, but didn’t come as a complete surprise, (I have a family history on both my mum and dad’s side), and in the time between the two tests I switched to a very low carb diet, bought a BG monitor, and started testing, so by the next test my BG was, unsurprisingly, in the normal range. I told her that I’d altered my diet and but that I’d eaten a bowl of corn flakes to see how my BG reacted, as a sort of ad hoc GTT, (I tested my boyfriend at the same time), after two hours I was at 14, he was at 5.1! She then concluded that I probably was diabetic, but that as I was doing everything right in terms of controlling my BG there wouldn’t be any benefit in an official diagnosis as I’d just be told to carry on what I was doing, but I’d then have 'diabetic' on my medical records, which can cause problems when applying for jobs, etc. And as I’m a mature student who’ll be looking for work soon, I think she could be right.

My dilemma now though, is that after doing A LOT of reading about diabetes (it been a very steep learning curve, and this site has been a god send!), I now think it’s possible that I could have LADA (I’m skinny, never been overweight, only 36, etc), but if I ask my GP to carry out a diagnostic test for this then I’m almost certainly going to have to be officially diagnosed. Of course, if I am a LADA, this won’t be a problem as I believe, from what I’ve read, that the sooner it’s diagnosed the better, but if I’m a type 2, then I’d prefer to remain undiagnosed for longer, as I don’t see the advantages a diagnosis would bring (I can have my eyes, bp and lipid levels checked anyway and from what I’ve read here, most professional diet advice is next to useless).

So, do I ask for a LADA test but ask not to be officially diagnosed unless it comes back positive? Or would an official diagnosis be a sensible thing to do no matter what the outcome? :?

Sorry again for such a long post :)
 
I can't see that an official diagnosis should affect your career opportunities. If you're insulin dependant it could be an issue, but you're not. I'd want to know properly, so I know what I'm dealing with and what to expect, how to deal with it etc. Up to you though, that's just me! Good luck
 
By the way, small point, but if you're officially diagnosed, all your prescriptions will be free!
 
Hi Grazer, thanks for the reply.

I think there's no doubt that I'm pre or diabetic, just not sure if I'm type 2 or maybe 1.5. If I'm 1.5 I'd maybe need a small amount of insulin, but if I'm type 2, nothing really changes for me, other than it would now be on my medical records and I'd have to disclose it on any job applications if asked.

I did ask if my strips would be free if diagnosed type two, but I was told no, unless I became insulin dependent, so no benefit there either :(
 
Back
Top