Forty-one years ago, when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, no mention was made of a honeymoon phase, and it was a difficult time. I went through with little help. When was the diabetes honeymoon period made known? Who coined the phrase?

The first publications that used the term honeymoon period were in the early 1980s, but the phrase was used in the late 1970s, long after you were diagnosed, and arose as a result of the growing dependence on home blood glucose monitoring. In a way, it was rather an obvious expression to use, and I don’t think it can be ascribed to any one individual.

DOB
Additional comments from Dr. Tessa Lebinger:

I don’t know exactly when the phrase was coined or by whom, but Eliott P. Joslin, who was a pioneer in diabetes and formed the diabetes clinic in Boston and who died in 1962, certainly wrote about the “remission period” (honeymoon period) many years prior to 1962.

TGL