“Many women find their blood sugar tends to be high 3 to 5 days before, during, or after their periods.”
This sentence is everywhere. It’s often the only thing stated to give women guidance for how to manage their changing insulin needs throughout their cycle. I just copied that sentence verbatim from the 2015 edition of “A Woman’s Guide to Diabetes”. I’ve written about this sentence before:
I believe I have located the source of this sentence with the help of a citation in Type 1 Diabetes: A Guide for Children, Adolescents, Young Adults–and Their Caregivers, Third Edition by Dr. Hanas. He cites the following self-reporting survey from 1996:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1096-9136(199606)13%3A6<525%3A%3AAID-DIA123>3.0.CO%3B2-D
-124 women between 18 and 40 years old completed the survey.
-61% noticed changes in blood sugar during PMS (most commonly a rise in blood sugar).
-36% were making insulin changes based on this pattern
-There was no A1C difference between women who were adjusting their insulin vs not.
-67% of women were taking combination oral contraceptives and still noted blood sugar changes.
If 61% of women in 1996 without CGM, without all of the measuring and fine dosing tools of 2018, noticed blood sugar changes prior to menstruation, imagine what could be observed with nuance today on this topic. I imagine far more women would note insulin resistance during ovulation if they knew to look for it. I imagine far more women would note nuanced changes well before the “3-5 days” prior to menstruation if they knew to look for it. So much discussion for diabetic pregnancy focuses on increasing insulin doses to match resistance from hormones which increase throughout the pregnancy. Why on Earth this discussion has not been applied to cyclical hormones in a more meaningful way, more recent than 1996, is a bit baffling to me. And the fact that this sentence is repeated over and over and over without citation is interesting, as well.