I am a 44 year old female who was diagnosed with dysfunctional uterine bleeding 10 months ago. During this first episode, my gynecologist had me take a two-hour glucose tolerance test, and the numbers were in range for diabetes. Could my hormone imbalance at the time have thrown off the test results of the test? Since insulin is considered a hormone, could this be a reason for the test results?

Insulin is a hormones but it is not in the same category of hormones as estrogen and progesterone , the female hormones that regulate the menstrual cycle. Changes in these hormones do not generally affect insulin. Sometimes however, people with insulin resistance, which can result in elevated glucose levels, also have irregular menstrual bleeding. So, it is probable that you do have diabetes as indicated by the glucose tolerance test, and the results of the test were not likely influenced by your “hormonal imbalance” at the time. This could be confirmed by having repeat blood tests done.

The American Diabetes Association’s Clinical Practice Recommendations say that there are three possible ways to diagnose diabetes. Each must be confirmed, on a subsequent day, by any one of the three methods:

A “casual” (non-fasting) plasma glucose greater than 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L]
A fasting plasma glucose greater than 126 mg/dl [7.0 mmol/L]
An oral glucose tolerance test with the two- hour value greater than 200 mg/dl [11.1 mmol/L].

ML