TLH: diabetes and hormone replacement

Hello, I am new here and I apologize if I am not posting correctly. I am very concerned because neither my gyn/surgeon or my physician can answer this question. As some of you may know--if you are diabetic--bcp make the blood sugar soar dangerously; at least they did for me. Will ERT or HRT do the same? I was planning to get a low dose patch immediately after surgery and I am mentally prepared for the surgery and the patch. However, when I asked about blood sugar and neither of my doctors knew the answer, I felt panic. I want options; I don't want to have the hyst and then end up with no hormones because of my blood sugar. I can find very little on the internet concerning this issue. Do any diabetics out there have experience with this?

I too am diabetic, but this never occured to me! Do you have a local diabetes clinic, or perhaps your local hospital has one? this is a very good question to ask if you can find that resource. I will be calling my GYN today to ask this question. I am not insulin dependent, but don't want to rush the process to get to that point by taking HRT. If I find out anything of interest I'll come back and post it. Good luck!

I'm a 15 year diabetic....I kept my ovaries so I never asked to question if I could go on HRT, but the surgery shot my sugars up....I'm not insulin dependent, but in the hospital after surgery I was getting 3 injections a day. When I came home I had to watch my sugars very carefully. It also took me longer to heal. My incision did get some infection. My doctor warned me if I noticed ANY odor, oozing, anything questionable to call ASAP. You ladies will have to be very careful!!!! I had to go in once a week for her to check my incision for 5 weeks. She even asked me to keep a log of my sugar levels and she went over it everytime I went in. I don't want to scare you....but you need to watch yourselves very closely. I'm 4 months out now and doing great!!! I was very lucky that my doctor took my diabetes so seriously. She calls me her "sweet lady".

I too am diabetic and kept my ovaries so the HRT connection with my sugar never occured to me. Like the poster above keep a close eye on your levels. I take 5 shots a day to keep mine under control. I didnt have the problem of mine shooting up in the hospital...mine went low. Everything they gave me was sugar free. They wanted to give me my injections even though I couldn't keep anything down and the nurses were pig headed about letting me keep track of my levels myself and giving my own injections. Stand your ground. You know your own body and what it needs. They were only checking my levels about 3 times a day and I usually check with each injection and after every meal. So anywhere from 5 to 7 times a day. I explained to the nurses many times that I know how I feel when it goes low or high and I will instruct them as to my injections and diet. One of the nurses even remarked that we diabetics are usually more versed at what we should do for ourselves. I had my GP to back me up thank god. He was as involved with my surgery as my GYN. Even came to the hospital to see me everyday I was there. Coordinated with the surgery staff as to what my pre op instructions were and everything. He is my angel.


I have healed wonderfully. Feel better than I have in a long time.

Take care of yourself and let us know how things are.