Periods and perimenopause. And diabetes.

Let’s talk about perimenopause, periods, and diabetes. I’ll just wait a moment while a heap of people log off right now.

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If you’re still here, hi! Shall we go on? 

For the first, I don’t know, maybe 12 years I had my period, I had absolutely no regularity to it at all. I could never understand people who told me they got their period like clockwork, because for me the clock worked intermittently. It was less ‘that time of the month’ and more ‘that time of whenever’. Sometimes it came every three months. Sometimes every four and a half. It was a little surprise that showed up without warting when it felt like it, stayed for a few days, was minimally annoying (never particularly heavy and hardly any cramps at all), and then disappeared again, only to appear when it next felt like it. I spoke with my GP, and they weren’t concerned, and told me to celebrate the fact that I didn’t need to deal with period palaver each and every month. 

This was all good and well until I was ready to have a baby.  A regular period suggests that ovulation is happening regularly and that is kind of important if you need an egg to be fertilised. That wasn’t happening for me. Some fun fertility treatment (‘fun’, in this instance, means ‘frustrating, lots of tears, desperation and wondering why my body wasn’t doing what it was meant to do’), and I managed to get pregnant and have a baby. 

And then, from six months or so after I had our daughter, my periods started happening regularly. Like clockwork. It was as though pregnancy had rebooted the reproductive bits of my body and for the last 18 years, I’ve been paying GST on period products every month. 

During this time, I learnt that periods and diabetes don’t play nice. I’ve struggle to find patterns in my cycle so as to run different temp basal rates on my pump to accommodate. Anytime I’ve thought I’d nailed it and settled into a neat routine, the next month everything would go haywire. I guess I settled into another routine: a routine of no routine, where I just had to wing it at whatever time in my cycle things started to look a little sketchy. Loop certainly helped. I could see there were days each month when it was working overtime for no apparent reason, but those days didn’t correspond with the days the previous month. Or subsequent month…

And so, that brings us to present day when it’s time for another life transition or whatever euphemism you want to use to avoid using words that distract attention from hormones, uteruses, blood, and vaginas. 

The pretty regular cycles have stopped. I’m not back to three or four (and a half) monthly, it’s more like six weeks or three weeks or some other weird timeframe. My period is on the most bizarre schedule now that is, quite frankly, bloody (yes, I know) annoying. And when it does deign to stop by, it either stays around longer (as in days…) or pops in for just a day or two. Or, even worse, seems to be done after a few days, only to return a day afterwards. Truly, it sucks!

I have made an appointment with my gynaecologist to check-in (it’s probably cervical screening time again) and for a check-up. I know that my experiences are in line with what heaps of other diabetes friends have experienced (yeah, we turn to each other because where else is there to go?), but I have a heap of questions to ask, and accept that there may not be answers. 

And I’ve spoken with my endocrinologist. I think that I only ever think of my endo as my ‘diabetes doctor’ but really, her expertise in hormones is pretty bloody useful right now. And the fact that she does some work in a menopause clinic is hugely useful! 

But here’s the thing. There are not pages and pages of information out there about diabetes and menstruation or diabetes and menopause. Or how diabetes affects your period during perimenopause. In fact, as with so many things that affect those of us dealing with periods (when they start, when they happen and when they stop), there is a dearth of information and very little research. I mean, it’s no surprise, because the patriarchy in health (as everywhere else) is all powerful. (Don’t believe me? Look at the number of resources about, and treatments for, diabetes and erectile dysfunction as compared with diabetes and menstruation or diabetes and menopause…)

Meanwhile, I just keeping trying to work it out, and speak with friends with diabetes to listen, learn and laugh as they share their stories. And watch as we start to open up more and write more and talk more in our own communities and advocate for more attention. Because that’s the story of diabetes community – we start the conversations that need to be had and that sets off a chain reaction where others get on board. So…get on board!

More? Here’s The Diabetes Menopause Project.