Hi, I have a daughter (age 12) and she has been having her cycle for about 6 months now. My question is how do I figure out her insulin needs during her cycle? This month has been just awful her numbers have been in the 500's. We have increased her basal rate and even had to go in and do a temp basal during the day just to get her close to normal (we have not been in the normal range for a week now). Luckily today is her last day for this month, but I am trying to figure stuff out for next month (hopefully it won't be as bad!). She has been having a bad time thinking she is doing things wrong, and I keep trying to tell her it is her hormones not her that has a problem. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with all of this? We would appreciate any help you can give us!
It took me some time to figure it out but I now switch to a different basal rate for about 3 days. i am lucky that I am very regular and get my period every 28 days so on the 27th night I switch my patterns and get more insulin. This has helped so much. I no longer have the extreme high's like i used to. And I have found that I don't need a huge increase in my rate either. most of the day it is just .05 more per hour. I have noticed though that every few months or so i have to make a tweak to the adjustment here and there but overall my numbers are as close to perfect as i can get when it comes to dealing with hormones. Oh and I don't do the temp basal, i change to Pattern A and stay on it until my last day. I had no luck with the temp basal rate myself. I just have to remind myself to switch back to Standard or else I wake up at 40.
I started my period when I was about 11 or 12 years old and had extreamly bad blood sugars as well!! I was in the 500's and even 600's the whole time, and felt horriable. I had really bad cramps as well, so I'm sure that didnt play a toll. My mom took me to see my endo, and he recommended putting me on birth control...I know what your thinking, I'm not putting my 12 year old daughter on birth control! No worries, my mom felt the same way! Needless to say, we went ahead and tried it because after all, taking 1 pill a day beat how I felt with those high blood sugars. Now, 10 years later, I am still taking birth control and will never stop taking it unless I try to get pregnant one day. Within the first few months my blood sugars adjusted to near normal, and knowing when I was going to have my period helped keep my diabetes in tighter control as well!
I have had my period since I was thirteen and not only was it extremely irregular for 4 years but my blood sugar was so high. I do not know how my endo calculated this, but he had me set a pattern in my insulin pump to have a basal of 120% off of the normal one for the duration of my period. It really helps and keeps my blood sugars in tight control during that time.
The best thing to do is to track each month and figure out when her blood sugars start becoming erratic. For me the entire week before my blood sugars used to stay in the 200-300s. The only reason I figured it out was because i wrote everything down. My CDE and doc then helped me to figure out a temp basal to set and I just turn it on the week before i know I am going to get it and then as soon as it comes, i turn it back to my regular rate because my numbers go back to normal after the first day. It is really trial and error and a lot of detective work to figure it out. But, once you do it will work like a charm.