A bit of context: I’m 42, I was diagnosed with insuline resistance in 2013 in Italy. I started gaining weight in my teens and the situation got worse in my 20s and 30s. I weigh 80kg (sorry can’t use the stones/lbs thing 🫣) and I’m 163cm. I used to be 86kg in my worst moment and recently got better with a lot of effort.
Didn’t have a period for 5 months when I was 16 so they prescribed the contraceptive pill (of course, they knew nothing literally nothing about IR related to PCOS before). Lots of acne, hirsutism even though not severe, cysts in my ovaries etc
I got a giant cyst removed from my ovary when I was 24 and all stayed pretty much the same for a while, no further help with my issues…
till a great gyno tested me for IR and discovered my insuline was always high even when fasting.
Metformin gave me terrible GI issues so I stopped it and was on the pill till 2 years ago when I turned 40. Started taking inositol, eat better, go to gym and yoga and lot 6kg but I can’t go past that now. I got my periods back and regular now which might also due to changes in my hormones due to ageing.
I moved to the UK 6 years ago and here they refuse to let me see a dietician or an endocrinologist, NHS is terrible, just because I’m not fat enough!
But any problem I have they keep saying it’s because I’m overweight! What the &&&& am I supposed to do if you don’t help me with a dietary plan and exercise plan and I have to find out everything on Reddit ? (Got bless you guys!). The only suggested Ozempic but I’d have to pay and I can’t afford it… on top of not wanting to go that way.
Lately I pushed them to check my insuline resistance again and they didn’t agree to make me have the glucose test (fasting, after one hour etc etc) claiming that HbA1c levl was enough to see if I’m insulin resistant.
Results came in the normal range so they said I’m not insuline resistant anymore!
A friend in Rome who’s a dietician was against this saying hbA1c levels are not enough as my pancreas might be pumping a lot of insulin to compensate and that’s why the result is normal but still it might mean if I don’t keep it under control I might end up diabetic in a few years.
What’s your take on this? I’d love to be able to be direct with my GP and show them studies on this to push them to do only relevant tests to give a proper diagnosis**.**