Diabetes As a Women’s Health Issue

While every woman would recognize breast cancer as a women’s health issue, not very many would recognize diabetes as a women’s health issue. The two diseases can be put into proper perspective when you realize that each year, twice as many women die from diabetes as from breast cancer. Among women above the age of 65 years, the rate of death from diabetes is three times higher than deaths from breast cancer.

If we compare women with diabetes to those who do not have diabetes, we find that women with diabetes have five to seven-times higher rates of heart disease. Women with diabetes have rates of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure that are three to four times higher than women without diabetes. Truly diabetes is a women’s health issue.

The impact of diabetes on women can begin prior to birth. A baby girl born to a mother with diabetes during her pregnancy is more likely to be overweight during her lifetime. They are also more likely to have insulin resistance – their bodies are less responsive than normal to insulin.

Young women with diabetes go through puberty at a later age than if they did not have diabetes. They are twice as likely to have irregular menstrual periods during their reproductive years. Thirty percent will skip periods or go several months between periods.

Proper blood glucose control has been eliminated the higher rates of birth defects and miscarriages that use to complicate the pregnancies of diabetic women. Today the rate of miscarriage and birth defect in children born to diabetic women is virtually the same as the rates in women without diabetes.

Achieving an excellent outcome begins with counseling women prior to them becoming pregnant. It is best to have a hemoglobin A1c value under 7% at the time of conception. Life begins at conception and the early weeks of pregnancy are the time when all of the organs and other structures of the body are forming. By the time a woman realizes she is pregnant many vital structures have already been formed. We know that high blood glucose levels can disrupt the process of development in the baby. So, having a normal glucose environment is very important. Folic acid supplements (4 to 5 milligrams each day) should be started when pregnancy is being considered as it helps to ensure normal development of the nervous system.

Breast feeding the children of women with diabetes has all the same benefits as other children and is generally encouraged. Children who are breastfed have a decreased risk of developing type 1 diabetes. Breast feeding also helps to lower the blood glucose values in the mother with diabetes.

Women with type 1 diabetes have only a 1% to 2% chance of passing type 1 diabetes onto their children, Therefore, women should not defer having children out of fear that their children will definitely have diabetes.

Diabetes effects women during every stage of their lives so check with your health care provider about your risk.

Dr. Samuel Abbate is a local physical practicing in Wasilla.