Hormone Cycles
| Author: Judy Kohn, RN, BSN, CDE |
| Last Updated: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 |
Q: "Can the female menstrual cycle affect blood sugar? Can the hormones produced (or not produced) affect it? If it helps, I also have Hypothyroidism. Usually, I don't have much of a stomach to eat anything when I have my period. Today, when I got that high reading, I ate the same thing I normally do at lunch (typically resulting in a good reading of 114-120 two hours after lunch) but today it was 153!"
A: Yes, female hormone cycles can affect blood glucose. The reference I used, which I highly recommend, is the book from the American Diabetes Association called Women and Diabetes, by Laurinda M. Poirier and Katharine Coburn.
In that book the authors explain that usually blood glucose will be higher around or during your period, as the hormones cause your body to be more insulin resistant. The blood glucose often remains high for 3-5 days, and then returns to its usual level, sometimes gradually, and sometimes rapidly. But note that while some women notice this change right before their cycle, others notice it during or right after. In addition, either PMS or your menstrual period might cause you to have less energy, and thus you might not do your regular exercise, further causing your glucose to go up a little. Finally, the food cravings some women have-related to the hormone changes-can aggravate blood glucose levels as well, although in your case, you stated that you lose your appetite.
Naturally it is important to discuss this with your diabetes team, as well as to keep a careful record of your blood glucose levels during these times so you and your team can identify patterns. The blood glucose change you reported may be considered insignificant and/or unrelated-i.e. it may be a one-time slight rise and perhaps your healthcare team will tell you not to worry about this-but this is all individual and should be discussed with your medical team.
Related Questions
Thyroid Disease
Q:
"What effect do thyroid disease and thyroid medication have on my blood
glucose?"
Related Links
American Diabetes Association (ADA)
http://www.diabetes.org
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