Although diabetes has no obvious tendency of "favoring boys over girls" or "favoring girls over boys". However, due to their own physiological characteristics, women have to go through special physiological stages such as pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. This makes female patients have some special symptoms different from male patients, and their blood sugar fluctuation is often more obvious than that of male patients, especially during pregnancy and menopause, and the diabetic complications of female patients are often more serious than that of male patients. Below, the author combines the physiological characteristics of women to talk about the special symptoms of female diabetes and life care at various stages, hoping to help the majority of female diabetic patients.
What are the special complications of female diabetes?
"Three more and one less" is a typical symptom of all diabetic patients. Due to the influence of their own physiological characteristics, female diabetic patients often have some symptoms that male patients do not have, such as:
(1) is prone to urinary tract infection? The autoimmune of diabetic patients is low, and hyperglycemia is beneficial to the growth and reproduction of bacteria. In addition, female urethra has short, thick and straight anatomical characteristics, and female patients are prone to retrograde bacterial infection, causing cystitis. According to statistics, the incidence of urinary tract infection in women is about 8 times that of men.
(2) Pubic itching often occurs? When the blood sugar of diabetic patients rises to a certain degree and exceeds the "renal sugar threshold", glucose will be excreted from urine, which creates favorable conditions for the growth of mold and easily leads to vaginitis and perineal itching.
(3) Is it easy to have a huge baby? If the blood sugar of pregnant women with diabetes is not well controlled, the glucose in the blood can enter the fetus through the placenta, which will lead to fetal hyperglycemia, stimulate insulin secretion, promote the synthesis of glycogen, fat and protein, accelerate the growth of the fetus, gain weight, and increase the chances of giving birth to a huge fetus.
(4) Will it lead to irregular menstruation or infertility? Both estrogen and progesterone in diabetic patients are lower than normal, and the endocrine function of ovary declines to varying degrees, which can lead to delayed menarche, anovulation and even amenorrhea, and even affect reproductive function in severe cases.
(5) Will it lead to sexual dysfunction? Female sexual dysfunction is mainly manifested as frigidity, vaginal dryness, pain during sexual intercourse and lack of orgasm, which is mainly related to factors such as insufficient blood supply to vaginal submucosa, decreased secretion of love fluid and vaginal dryness caused by diabetic vascular disease. In addition, diabetic neuropathy will also affect the feeling of external genitalia, making it obviously insensitive to stimulation.
2. Health Tips for Female Diabetic Friends Women have to go through several special physiological stages in their lives, such as adolescence, pregnancy, lactation and menopause. Moreover, the level of hormones (especially sex hormones) in the body has also changed significantly, which in turn leads to high blood sugar and large fluctuations. Therefore, female sugar friends must strengthen disease management here.
(1) Adolescence: Blood sugar often rises, so strengthen control.
Puberty refers to the transition period from sexual development to sexual maturity, which is generally marked by the first menstrual cramp of women and the first nocturnal emission of men. During this period, the endocrine and reproductive system of the body changed obviously, the levels of sex hormones and growth hormones in the body increased, and women began to have menstruation. The patient's blood sugar is obviously higher than that before puberty and fluctuates greatly, especially the "dawn phenomenon" (that is, the patient's blood sugar rises gradually from dawn to morning).
Therefore, diabetic patients should appropriately increase the dosage of hypoglycemic drugs (mainly insulin) after entering adolescence, and at the same time pay attention to the law of life and diet to avoid mood swings.
(2) Menstrual period: Blood sugar fluctuates easily, so we should pay attention to monitoring.
The blood sugar of female diabetic patients will increase slightly before menstruation, which is mainly due to the rapid decline of estrogen and progesterone (progesterone) before menstruation, which leads to the aggravation of insulin resistance (IR). In addition, menstrual mood fluctuation is also a cause of blood sugar instability.
Each patient's blood sugar changes in different ranges. If patients want to know how much the menstrual period affects blood sugar, they can be tested before, during and after menstruation, 2-4 times a day for 2-3 months. In order to reduce blood sugar fluctuation, female patients should pay special attention to controlling diet, insisting on exercise and adjusting medication as appropriate during menstruation.
(3) Pregnancy: Blood sugar control should be strictly up to standard.
Hyperglycemia can cause serious harm to pregnant women and fetuses. Therefore, good blood sugar control during pregnancy is very important for the normal development of the fetus and the safety of pregnant women.
Generally speaking, it is best for patients to prepare for pregnancy 3 ~ 6 months in advance, stop taking oral hypoglycemic drugs and switch to insulin therapy.
After pregnancy (especially in the first trimester), we should strengthen all-weather blood sugar monitoring, strictly control blood sugar, reduce blood sugar fluctuation, and control glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA 1c) within the normal range (< 6.0%). During pregnancy, you should also receive regular guidance from diabetes doctors, nutritionists and obstetricians and gynecologists, scientifically arrange your diet and adjust the insulin dosage in time, because with the increase of gestational age and the influence of progesterone, the insulin resistance of pregnant women becomes more and more serious, and it is necessary to continuously increase the insulin dosage;
After delivery, with the discharge of placenta, the insulin antagonist hormone drops rapidly, and the dosage of insulin also decreases greatly.
(4) breastfeeding: you can breastfeed.
Sugar mother's milk is hardly affected by her blood sugar. The glucose in milk is not higher than that of non-diabetic mothers, and the quality is not worse than that of non-diabetic mothers. So you can breastfeed. It should be noted that because hypoglycemic agents can be secreted by milk, it is not appropriate for the "sugar mother" who chooses breastfeeding to take hypoglycemic agents orally, but should choose insulin treatment.
Because the blood sugar will drop after breastfeeding, sugar mothers should beware of hypoglycemia, often add a small amount of meals, reduce the amount of insulin, and pay attention to monitoring blood sugar.
In addition, female diabetic patients should drink more soup rich in vitamins, calcium and other minerals and protein during lactation, especially a few mouthfuls before and after each lactation, which is good for their health. In addition, lactating women should consume1200 ~1500mg of elemental calcium every day.
(5) Sexual life: it can reduce blood sugar, so beware of hypoglycemia.
Diabetes is not a contraindication to sexual life. Because sexual life is also a kind of physical activity, blood sugar will decrease with the consumption of physical strength. Therefore, female diabetic patients, especially those treated with insulin, should pay attention to prevent hypoglycemia during sexual intercourse. Under normal circumstances, if you want to share a room, the patient should temporarily reduce the amount of insulin as appropriate. If you have already injected insulin, you can also consider eating something properly before sex.
(6) menopause: blood sugar fluctuates greatly and the risk of cardiovascular disease is high.
After women enter menopause, with the decrease of sex hormone levels in the body, the sensitivity of the body to insulin will also increase accordingly. At this time, if the dose is not reduced in time, some female diabetic patients may have hypoglycemia, especially at night.