Menstrual Cycle, BI

Hi All,

Just to update you that I did not hear back from the DAFNE folk. No reply to my e-mail about including this aspect of control on future courses so no luck there. I also think that lots of gals won't realise what the problem is and so when DAFNE Extra becomes available no -one will include this in the course. I said to people on my course that maybe this was why they couldn't get control. They had not recognised the problem and now see a pattern to their BI changes. I have told my DSN's but nothing is mentioned in our follow up meetings. i wish they would address this. Why would they keep pretending that one BI is what you should aim for and will do you?
It seems such an oversight.
Anywya, hwo are we all getting on? I am not much fourther forward. I can predict the time of rise but not how much to raise it. I am now trying doses for one day only and changing the next day if not working. This is because I know when I am on the way up, and when I am on the way down. I think changes are required more quickly thatn the step- wise approach allows, especially on the way down of course when menstruation occurs and the insulin has to be whacked right down right away. I suspeact as other says that DAFNE jsut can't help with this and we all need to find our own pattern.

Good luck all!

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think those insulin pumps with the continuous glucose monitors are the only way to solve the problem! I've tried to predict changes but can never get it right. Everything changes week by week so by the time you have gathered evidence to talk to someone everything has changed again.

That is disappointing news... it's stupid considering for years it's been common for even HCPs to say "your BGs rise on your period".

At the moment I seem to need to drop my dose during the actual period week... very annoying to cope with. I did think it was caused by the recovery of illness before but considering it's that time again and I'm hypoing again... I'm not convinced now that it was just a simple case of illness recovery... T_T

On that note, I didn't just put down my BI by two units on both sides of the split, but I found I had to put my ratios back down by 0.5 (I'm normally 1.5:1 for breakfast and dinner; 1:1 for lunch - so they were all put down).

In other news, I'm now off the pill and using a non-hormonal "coil" which I'm sure will result in interesting times to come now my body can be more natural again... shall see. Haven't been reporting back because these changes of course. I haven't been keeping track of temp since being ill... I probably should start that up again with these changes....

JWo said:
That is disappointing news... it's stupid considering for years it's been common for even HCPs to say "your BGs rise on your period".

At the moment I seem to need to drop my dose during the actual period week... very annoying to cope with. I did think it was caused by the recovery of illness before but considering it's that time again and I'm hypoing again... I'm not convinced now that it was just a simple case of illness recovery... T_T

On that note, I didn't just put down my BI by two units on both sides of the split, but I found I had to put my ratios back down by 0.5 (I'm normally 1.5:1 for breakfast and dinner; 1:1 for lunch - so they were all put down).

In other news, I'm now off the pill and using a non-hormonal "coil" which I'm sure will result in interesting times to come now my body can be more natural again... shall see. Haven't been reporting back because these changes of course. I haven't been keeping track of temp since being ill... I probably should start that up again with these changes....

Athena said:
Hi JWO,

it looks as if you are having the same pattern as I am. I drop my BI immediately at menstruation and a little bit in the few days prior to it. I am not sorting anything using QA at all yet, but may do as I find getting the rest of the month sorted not good.
Interestingly, I have the dawn phenomena, and actually have to put this dose up when my BI goes to its lowest point during menstruation. I suppose I need some more QA to compensate for the lower BI. Sound like you are following the same sort of pattern. I fid that that is the easy bit. The step -wise approach is too slow to work with the gradual rise in insulin requirements up to the premenstrual time. I am now abandoning this and using a change after 1 day approach , rather than waiting for a pattern to see if that helps. I habve tried the step - wise approach for over a year now and as i feel really ill on DAFNNE, I don't want to continue with it to sort this out. As I know when requirements are rising and falling I can do this ok.

takekcare

Sorry about the delay... work got in the way!

Here's my current period pattern... look familiar?

Considering I feel like I'm experiencing deja vu this time around compared with last month while I was also recovering from stomach flu, I'm not convinced those hypos were caused by the illness recovery.

Looking back at the previous thread, I'm going to look more into this tid bit:

Athena said:
Looked into this a bit more and there should be a pattern of:

lowest insulin requirements during menstruation
Rising requirements at end of menstruation
Highest requirements just prior to next menstruation

This is the most typical pattern, but it is not everybody's pattern. Yours may be different, it is just a question of noticing it.

Hi there, just been reading these posts and must admit to not actually having noticed a drop in BG during my period but will definately keep an eye out for this next month.

Just wondered if anyone else has noticed any changes mid month during ovulation. I seem to have a pattern of my BG being very high (top end of the teens) for round about 36 hours but then they usually return back to normal. Had a day like this today and using my normal correction doses has done nothing to help brings my BG levels down. Still 14.7 by dinner even though I had an extra 2 correction units at lunch!! Think I will have to try and increase my correction doses next month and see what happens.

Karen x

Hi KAren,
yes lots of us have noticed peaks mid- month and are trying via temperature testing etc. to predict the time of ovulation so that we can be ahead of the game and change our doses on the right day of the month. We have a ll noticed that it takes time to see patterns and this is not a quick fix. Hope you get things sorted Karen.

Athena said:


Just to update you that I did not hear back from the DAFNE folk.