Dr Ashley Ng

There is no doubt that the last three and a half years has taken an absolute toll on my body. At least I have two gorgeous little girls to show for it, even if they are currently walking petri dishes. I’ve been incredibly lucky that my sugars were relatively predictable during pregnancy. However, it has always been the post partum sugars and diabetes management that has been somewhat of a mess. And this time round, diabetes has just been…so. bloody. hard.

I know that there are so many contributing factors too. I’m falling sick more often because I am probably run down and have I mentioned I have two walking petri dishes who can’t keep their hands off me? My exercise, which traditionally has played a key factor in my diabetes management, has been inconsistent. And I feel like it’s only been recently that my hormones have finally started to settle down, which I think has made the biggest impact of all.

My body seemed to know exaclty when I decided to stop breastfeeding as it didn’t take long for my sugars to board a different rollercoaster. I had days when my sugars consistently sat in the high teens, even with an increased temp basal. The occulsion alerts seemed to then set off a perfect storm. I remember times where I would almost cry when I saw the stupid alarm pop up. I didn’t know what to do as I had gone through all the troubleshooting steps I could possibly do in my head. I felt so desperate that I found myself browsing Android phones and considering jumping on the CamAPS train to have a closed loop.

I also considered seeing my diabetes team, but I didn’t know who to talk to. I was certain these sugars were tied to the hormonal changes I was going through and perhaps the birth control I was on. The wait to see my endo was too long, so that wasn’t an option. I then couldn’t decide between my diabetes educator and my GP. I felt that my GP would know more about birth control but not diabetes and vice versa with my educator. So I didn’t make any appointment.

For the first time since my early diagnosis days, I truly hated diabetes and felt alone.

Then one day, my sugars were magically back within range again. In fact, there was a week where I was low a fair bit. It was odd, but a welcome change to the high alerts I’ve been getting. Not long after, my period came, which just confirmed my suspicions that everything was linked back to my hormones.

Since then my sugars have been much more manageable and predictable, which is nice. But now I’m really missing the freedom of not having to worry about a period! I’ve also finally booked in with a GP for a cervical screening test where I will ask about different birth control options as a bit of a starting point to better understand what my next steps will be. So yes, having diabetes as a woman, while navigating hormonal changes and keeping up with two young kids, can be really sucky.