Diabetes and Menopause

Whether you have Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes, menopause can affect your diabetes management:

•      Hormone levels can make blood glucose levels erratic
•     Weight gain can mean an increase in the medicine you take
•      Hot flushes and night sweats can affect your sleep and indirectly affect your diabetes management.

Talk to your diabetologist
 You can help yourself by…

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Having a healthy balanced diet. 

• Keeping active. 
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• Checking blood glucose levels regularly and seeing if it is affected by any changes  you have made in medication to deal with highs and lows.
• Hormonal changes during menopause increases the chances of developing Cardio vascular disease in women. Lower oestrogen increases the risk of osteoporosis.To reduce  the risk…
•  Keep active with weight bearing exercise such as walking and dancing.
• Increase calcium rich foods- leafy greens, dried fruit, tofu and yogurt.
•     Vitamin D is also important for healthy bones – eggs, milk, oily fish and sunshine.

Watch the waist line.   

It usually starts to expand between 40 -50 years for men and women because of less activity, more alcohol, hormonal changes, busy life style and generally expands without your noticing it.

For men, testosterone starts to drop during middle age and can result in reduced muscle mass, lack of energy,or  depression. Men with low testosterone levels are more likely to be resistant to insulin. A lot of men with Type 2 diabetes have low testosterone levels.

People who learn more about diabetes usually have better control of their condition.