High blood sugars and premenstration

[k8t]

I have been a juvenile diabetic for 21 years. I recently started insulin pump therapy. My BG's were doing great but this last week my breakfast BG levels were in the 200's. To see if I was getting low during the night I decided to check my BG's at 300am. My BG's are in the mid 200's at 300am. My BG's are lower in the morning and by 300pm they are high again. I am supposed to get my period in 15 days and in previous months it always seems by BG's are higher 2 weeks prior to menstration. This seems really odd since most people report high BG's only 3-5 days prior to menstration. Does anyone else have this problem?

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

I'm another volunteer and also a pumper.

It's a good idea to keep your notes/readings about BGs, periods, stress, food, etc for a while.  Then go back over them to see what patterns you detect.

Sometimes, there's a food that we metabolize differently than we assumed, and your notes would help you discover that pattern.  For example, you meal might include a certain type of bread/roll for which you bolus XX units based on the nutrition labelling.  Then you might find that 2 hours after that meal, your BG is too high/too low.  If that happens repeatedly after having that type of bread/roll, you know that you should try to bolus more/less and again watch the pattern.  There are sooo many variables that sometimes we just don't get the right one.  Hormones *do* have a noticeable impact but perhaps your hormones at ovulation cause highs also.  Talk with the pump trainer about adjusting your basal pattern, too.  Often a littel tweak there can make a great difference.

Keep up the sleuthing & the good work!

[JDRF-Team-gg]

Hi k8t!  First off, congratulations on going on the pump!  How exciting for you.  Secondly, we are not medical professionals, so any information you pick up here should be verified with your doctor.  

It is really important that you monitor your bg's more closely when starting a new insulin therapy.  If you had not been doing the 2-3am check prior to noticing high morning bg's, you really can't say if you were high due to just being high or were you high due to bottoming out & rebounding by the morning.  What you are doing now in checking in the middle of the night will give you the insight you'll need to make the necessary adjustments to your basil rates so that you can get your numbers where they should be.  Insulin is a hormone and so everyone is different when it comes to how much to adjust for your menstruation cycle.  Whatever works for you is what you need to do, but perhaps others will comment with their own personal experience and how they deal with it.  Enjoy life with the pump!!