Has anyone here developed Pre-Diabetes during Hormone Therapy
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Well, as happy as I've been to say that I'm fairing rather well on Lupron/AI, I got the disappointing news last week that I am officially in the pre-diabetes range with an A1C of 5.8. It's been 5.3 my entire adult life, even when I've weighed more, exercised less, and ate and drank with total disregard for my health. Estrogen plays a vital role in glucose metabolism and for some women, blocking all estrogen tips them into diabetic territory. I'm one week into wearing a 14 day glucose monitor so I can understand my trends and adjust my diet accordingly. I cut out processed foods and sugar a year and a half ago at diagnosis, I exercise daily and am not overweight, so there are somewhat limited changes for me to make. Here is what I've noticed so far...
- absolutely no eating past 8:00pm or my blood sugar is in the 180s and doesn't come down to normal ranges for about 5 hours.
- a brisk walk after eating helps bring me back to normal range much quicker than if I eat and don't move
- drinking apple cider vinegar mixed with water before and during meals keeps me from spiking quite as high
- the pure unsweetened cranberry juice that I have been mixing with water daily to prevent the feeling of UTI causes my BG to spike
- even small amounts of healthy carbs like brown rice, garbanzo beans, etc raise my BG significantly
- I make sure I have lean (often, but not always plant-based) protein and healthy fat with every single meal. I eat slowly and drink LOTS of water throughout the day
Even with these changes, I'm still having a hard time keeping my BG from going into the 180s after even a small healthy meal. Definitely not something I ever had a problem with prior to blocking estrogen. GRRRRR!
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thanks for sharing your situation and what you’ve been doing to control glucose levels
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I got my blood drawn at the PCP this week in preparation for the endocrinologist visit. So...my A1C according to this test is 4.6 - not much different than 3 and a half years ago. So much for home testing.
I am going to assume this result must be correct and that I was worried for no reason. I'm beginning to to think those lower end glucose monitors like the one I have are not accurate anymore either.
As far as diet, I will still stick to the low carb macros I set for myself, and continue tracking my food because I do need to watch my weight regardless.
My thyroid panel is also normal which is good, but it doesn't rule out thyroid cancer. Hopefully, the endo visit will also have a positive result. She may want another ultrasound, we will see.
hope you are all doing well!0 -
Hi Jennyjo20.
That's disappointing news for sure. I have read that about AIs. A white paper I read last week said that AIs have a 3x higher rate of tipping someone into pre-diabetes of full-blown diabetes than Tamoxifen.
I'm especially worried about this, as even Tamoxifen has an effect on BS, and I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes 7 years ago. Since then I've done what you have, and eat borderline Keto, and according to my monitor am actually in ketosis, and have lowered my A1C to 5.4 and not had to be put on meds.
To think that all that hard work could be undone with hormone therapy is disturbing. There is some data (I don't think any formal clinical studies as of yet) though that Metformin (the drug my end said he would need to put me on if I got into diabetic territory), has some benefits for cancer.
It seems with meds you "solve" or help one problem, and develop other problems that then require their own meds, and pretty soon you're taking bottle after bottle of meds. Ugh...
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breast cancer treatment is a tightrope walk between side effects and control of the disease itself
Definitely no walk in the park for any of us
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I am beyond annoyed….after only four months on tamoxifen I am now officially type two diabetic.! Seriously, wtf. I eat very low carb (less than 20 grams a day), exercise every day, have a normal weight (if not low). I have dropped this drug like a hot potato. So not worth it to me, I will be retested in six months to see if it really was the drug…but it’s the only thing different in my life.
My doctor is fully supportive (family doctor) There are studies that show tamoxifen increase chances of diabetes over 20%….why, after all my questions to the oncologist was I NEVER told this…
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Bringing back this 2021 topic because I've recently been diagnosed with prediabetes. My pre cancer treatment blood levels were totally fine. I am a healthy weight, have no family history, and do not consume much sugar. So I'm playing the game: was it chemo, menopause, or tamoxifin lol? I guess it doesn't really matter. Grateful the treatments saved my life but frustrated with the lasting effects.
Anyone else dealing with a new pre-diabetes diagnosis post-treatment? And if so, any advice beyond the usual watch your sugar/carb intake and exercise more?
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After a couple of months on letrozole my LDL crept up to where I was put on a statin. (My PCP—since succumbed to COVID at the start of the pandemic—wasn't going to do so, except my family cv history is a train wreck). My fasting glucose, always 90 or below before AIs, rose into the low 100s (108 to as high as 125) and my a1c got as high as 5.8 before I was placed on a low-carb (near-keto) diet that got my BMI down below 26 before various life stresses boomeranged me back up above 180 lbs. I was then put on Zepbound, which got me back down to 135 lbs and a BMI below 25—and my a1c down to 5.4. So it wasn't the AI that directly made me prediabetic—it was the statin it necessitated that did.
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My experience is that both fasting glucose and A1C went up after starting AIs. Glucose shot up pretty quickly then started to go down a bit. A1C went from 5.1 to 5.6 over a period of a couple of years. But both went down again after I stopped at five years.
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