I’m a diabetic for 22years, i’m 28now, i have always been on insulin injections. My husband and i would like to have children in the nearest future and therefor i have decided to switch to a pump; i have read in multiple places that you have better control with a pump especially during pregnancy time.
I have always been against the thought of having something stuck to me, reminding me that i’m a diabetic, more than i am reminded with now.
I looked into CGM and all sorts of pumps; unfortunately the wireless pump (which i wanted to get) was not available in France (where i live, im ukrainian). Not only that but CGM which come with certain pumps were not provided here either! Way to go France… Meaning if i want a CGM then i have to pay from your own pocket; ones which come with the pump are ridiculously expensive so we are on the waiting list for free style libre, which we can afford, since Feb…
I got a phone call today from a hospital saying that there is an open spot for me if i wish to get a pump and receive training. However, they told me that if we are preparing to get pregnant then we have to wait for 3 months once i switch to a pump. Wait what the heck?! I never heard this in my life! I looked up on internet right away if it was true, no where managed to find this type of info. So i am referring to you, if you could tell me your experience and if it really is like that.
Needless to say i’m extremely upset with my endo, as she wasnt pushing me to switch to a pump and she knew from the beginning that we wanted to get pregnant. She said ‘‘anyway the pump is not for you, people who have bad management of their diabetes profit from a pump’’… This is so wrong in SO many ways, i wont get into that :-/
i have very tight control on my BGL, i check at -least- 15s a day. I have an app which helps me to see where my levels are raising and why (cos i write everything down). So i have pretty good control, i doubt that it takes up to 3 months to get used to a pump, unless you’re not a very technology friendly person or dont know your carb-radio perhaps.
Please tell me that this doctor, from the hospital, spoke nonsense like so many do.
I am 31 and started on a pump when I was 16. While there is no official rule about not getting pregnant as soon as you start on a pump, my guess is that this 3-month rule is their SUGGESTION. Getting used to a pump isn’t about the technology. It will take time, no matter how good your control is, to figure out what your settings need to be (basal rates, carb ratios, insulin sensitivity, etc). I assume they want you to wait 3 months to get the pump figured out in that sense. It is very different from taking injections. However, if you got pregnant the day after you started on a pump would it hurt your baby? No way.
Hi,
I’m 29 and diabetic for 25 years. I live in the US and my insurance does not cover any pumps/CGMs, as is the case with most insurance plans here I believe. My endocrinologist had to write to the insurance company to advocate for me and for why I had to have these for optimal control, which is a common practice to get these devices covered here and it’s not difficult to find an endo that will do it. The insurance company now covers both for me. I have a Medtronic 530G system.
I hated the idea of being hooked up like a cyborg, which kept me from taking this step until last summer, but issues with SEVERE lows several times a day and night during my first pregnancy made me commit to it when I knew I wanted to get pregnant again. Now I feel like such a fool for ever not using these tools in the past. I feel a lot more like a “normal” person than I ever did without the pump (24 years of my life!).
Medtronic told me the pump is approved for pregnancy in the US but the CGM is not. I had to wait a month after getting the pump to introduce the CGM but no limits were put on getting pregnant at all. Since the CGM isn’t approved by the FDA for pregnancy here my high-risk OB said I should still rely solely on finger sticks and only use the CGM as an additional “warning system” but they just have to say that. I still do a few finger sticks a day but I feel VERY comfortable relying on the accuracy of my CGM for general management as well.
I don’t know what the medical system is like in France, but I know in the US nobody can punish you in any way for getting pregnant before they give you approval, so it sounds like a suggestion more than an order to me. If you had to sign any documents FOR THE HOSPITAL OR FOR THE PUMP MANUFACTURER OR FOR INSURANCE to get this pump then read those documents to see if there’s any consequences to not following these wait-3-months orders.
