I am 22 year old female who stopped taking insulin injections for the past eight months on my doctor’s advice, and recently my fasting blood glucose was 103 mg/dl [5.7 mmol/L], my two-hour postprandial blood glucose was 168 mg/dl [9.3 mmol/L], and my glycosylated haemoglobin was 9%. Is my sugar in control? Am I fully cured? Can I get married?

I would suggest you probably have a form of diabetes that does not require insulin. We would refer to this as type 2 diabetes with diabetes is a result of decreased insulin effectiveness (insulin resistance) and an additional problem of decreased insulin secretion. On the other hand, type 1 diabetes results from absolute destruction of the insulin-producing cells so that no insulin can be made.

Type 2 diabetes tends to occur in families and in people who are overweight. Any recent weight loss or increase in physical activity that would decrease the insulin resistance may have allowed your sugars to improve without insulin.

It is likely that you have not been cured from having diabetes. In fact, your postprandial sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin are still above normal.

Your doctor should be able to give you more insight into why you don’t need the insulin. I would suggest you speak with your doctor about this.

JTL

[Editor’s comment: There is absolutely no reason why you should not marry and have a family if you want to. See Planning a pregnancy at the Diabetes Monitor.

SS]