Mumble bloomin' grumble bloomin' moan.

Hormones. Geeez they know how to stuff us up, don't they?

I'm menopausal. It sucks at my age, it really does. Started in my late 20s and because I'm so young it has to be dragged out until I'm about 50.

I'm now on HRT. No big deal I guess, at least it offers me some protection. And as far as I knew I had no troubles with it. (And as a bonus I still don't get periods - which I'm very very happy with thank-you-very-much!)

I clearly remember asking my doctor if the HRT would effect my blood sugars in any way.

NO says he.

A few months down the track I see an alarming thing happening with my BGs. They're climbing for a couple of weeks. I increase all insulin and freak out a bit. I test so often my fingers have polkerdots. Up up and away goes my BG no matter how many corrections I make.

And then, for another couple of weeks, I'm struggling with lows. I feel more energetic (always do when my numbers are lower) but I'm having far too many lows. So I adjust insulins again.

And so on.

As far as I knew I was just stuck in a roller coaster of insulin changes, never quite finding the right amount. I thought I wasn't paying enough attention, I thought I was probably not eating well enough, not sleeping well enough, getting stressed about stuff, and just not doing a good job.

It's taken me this long to realise that I'm having an extreme version of a woman's typical BG ups & downs that go with the monthly hormonal changes!

Fer cryin' out loud, woman! I can't believe I was so slow!

This is what's pissing me off:
My waking number is O-M-G-high! I would expect it to be a little higher than average because I slept in. But THAT high?! ouch!

It freaked me out so much that I became overcautious for most of the day. Over-jabbed for everything because I knew I was in for the same crap as the previous few days. It worked until 9pm, as you can see, where I hit an *almost* low and then bounced severely back into the teens... and never left there :(

Well geez - the good news is that I've finally clicked. From now on I'll have a planned increased basal as soon as I start the progesterone pills, instead of increasing it after a week of hassles and then having to decrease it when I'm stuck with lows. Maybe now that I realise where it's all coming from I can stay a step ahead and stop freaking out about the crazy readings.

It's times like this I'm glad I log (and I'm really glad Kevin wrote that oh-so-wonderful Excel file that so many of us love!). If I didn't log I'd never have seen the trend.

My A1c is due next week. I think there'll be a few weeks of stalling, because I'd rather wait until I know it's a bit lower. Even though I know it'll be a bit higher now, I don't want to see it confirmed! (If I don't see it, it never happened, right?)

Here's to a smoother ride from now on...