As if you didn’t have enough wellness needs to be worry about during menstruation, oestrogen and progesterone, which are the hormones that control your menstrual cycle, also affect your blood glucose levels.
According to Jay Cohen, MD, medical director of the Endocrine Clinic in Memphis and clinical assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Tennessee, ‘Two or three days before menstruation, as oestrogen and progesterone levels are changing, a number of women — but not all — will notice that their insulin needs increase substantially because their blood glucose levels are rising’.
If you have type 1 diabetes, it’s important to monitor your levels and adjust your insulin accordingly to manage the surge of these hormones during your period. These levels may rise before your period begins, and decrease just after. Cohen explains that some women don’t experience menstrual cycle-related changes in their blood glucose levels, and others may only see decreases in their blood glucose levels around the time of their period.
Further, girls with type 1 diabetes tend to start having periods a year later than those who don’t have the disease, and the wellbeing of women with type 1 diabetes is more at risk to menstrual problems before age 30. You could have an increased chance of longer menstrual cycles, longer periods, heavier menstruation and an earlier onset of menopause. Cohen adds ‘In women whose diabetes is out of control, high blood sugars can put a woman at increased risk of vaginal and yeast infections, and can also affect regular menses,’ so again, ‘it is important to have good blood sugar control on a regular basis’.
Cohen recommends that you see your endocrinologist in order to put a plan in place to deal with these changes. Your endocrinologist will review the fluctuations in your blood glucose levels throughout your menstrual cycle, and then help you decide what you need to do to keep your blood glucose levels under control all month long. Cohen urges ‘That way, you can prevent those five to seven days of prolonged high blood sugars, which can lead to potential dehydration’ and other complications. He advises that regardless of your method of changing your insulin levels, there is a good chance that you will need to increase your insulin doses for two or three days before you start your period.
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