Puberty affects T1D no matter what, but it doesn’t have to be a problem. Knowing what to expect is half the battle. If you go into those years prepared for the unpredictability, you’ll feel much better about the entire experience.
I’m far enough removed from puberty that I remember little about how it affected my T1D. Jessie has some clear memories of her experience and shares those with us today.
We also polled the Facebook DOC for their experience with how puberty affects T1D and got some varied answers.
Colleen’s A1cs all the way back to 2005. Click to Enlarge.
Wins & Fails
Colleen’s Win: An update on the Novolog thing… With my company’s and doctor’s involvement, it looks like my insurance WILL cover my Novolog. We’ll see how it shakes out when I go to order some at the end of March.
Jessie’s Fail: She let her insulin stock get way too low. She only had 3 vials left when we recorded, but ordered more and had it arrive in a couple of days.
Tip of the Week
Puberty can make diabetes unpredictable. For the parents of any T1s going into this age range, know that it will likely be a different beast from the one you’ve been dealing with until now. And if you’re in the thick of it, keep it in mind that this too shall pass.
There’s a lot of relief in accepting that it’s going to be a wild ride.
Diabetes Spotlight
The spotlight this week is on the ADA for actually lowering the recommended A1c for children with type 1 diabetes. It was 7.5%, and now the ADA has recommended it be below 7%.
This is awesome news because it’s evidence that the ADA is finally recognizing the long-term damage caused by “slightly elevated” blood sugars.
A 7.5% A1c is an average glucose of 169 mg/dL, and below 7% means you’d be averaging below 154 mg/dL. A step in the right direction!
Now It's Your Turn...
How did puberty affect YOUR diabetes control? Was it pretty boring, or did it make things difficult during that time of your life? What do you wish you’d known beforehand?
Mentioned in This Episode
- Support the blog & podcast by buying us a coffee through Ko-fi!
- Episode 51: Diabulimia
- WebMD | Puberty and Type 1 Diabetes
- NCBI | Puberty and type 1 diabetes
- Diabetes Québec | Puberty in Young Diabetics
- The Diabetes Council | How Does Puberty Affect Diabetes?
- KidsHealth | All About Puberty
- Episode 30: Basal Rates—you may have to adjust these a lot during puberty!
- Episode 20: Celiac & T1D, with Alexa Brenner—I mis-remembered her episode number while recording, but here is the correct link!
Community & Social
- Join us in the Half-Dead Pancreas Club, our private Discord community for people with T1D.
- Follow us on Instagram @thisistype1pod, @jj_crystalkat, & @type1ravenclaw
- Follow us on Facebook
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Credits
Our music is by Joseph McDade. Check out his website here!
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