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CGM's in the UK

aamcle

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Good Morning All.

I have type2 and I'm currently trying a Freestyle Libre 2 CGM, however I'm paying for it and it's about 100 per month. I doubt very much that I can get my GP to pay but I'm am finding it useful and would like to keep using it.

What is the cheapest CGM available in the UK and where would I get it?

Many thanks.
 
Hi @aamcle - as far as I'm aware they're all roughly the same price - another one you could consider is the Dexcom One + - that is £35 per sensor which last 10 days each - so not much of a cost saver, if any - you can get a free trial of one but you only get one sensor
 
Now, I am very very lucky to have my CGM funded by the NHS. However, this has not always been the case - I was self funding it for a few years.
During that time, I kept the costs down by optimising my CGM use - I used it to learn how my BG reacted to different foods and activities and adjusted my diabetes management accordingly.
I would spend two weeks with a LIbfre doing my experiments with different food, different exercise, etc. and working out whether to adjust my diet, exercise times, etc. Then I spent 4 weeks without a sensor following the regime changes I had deduced with the sensor with finger pricks to check. Then I would repeat for another sensor: 2 weeks learning 4 weeks putting lesson into action.

I learned a lot from this and saw significant improvements in my diabetes management. The first version of Libre did not have alarms so I was not missing out on being alerted by high or low BGs ... and to be honest, I have pretty good hypo/hyper awareness.
 
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Funding for CGM's, as I am finding out, for T2 is quite limited. You need to be on multiple daily dose insulin as a starting point.

If you are then you need to be FP testing at least 8x a day or be otherwise unable up properly manage things.

I'm trialling Libre at the moment and love it and am hoping I can convince my GP to fund as I do meet these criteria.

Otherwise I'd be seriously tempted to try and find the money as, like you say, they are very useful.
 
I'm 95% of the time in green and have never hit 11 mmol/L so I am going to have to pay.

Currently experimenting with low carbs and fasting, I have seen the stuff Unwin (a GP in Southport) has published so it's worth a try.

Who if anybody on YT is reliable?

Atb.
 
I'm 95% of the time in green and have never hit 11 mmol/L so I am going to have to pay.
That seems likely yes. On the positive side, it means you'd likely get not that much benefit from using sensors continuously. I'm sure there can be benefits in using one now and again (as @helli suggests), just to see what's happening, and there's definitely a reinforcement benefit in seeing the graph of what's actually happening. Probably no need to have one on all the time, though.

I believe Dexcom One+ is cheaper with a subscription, but I think that would only work if you were using one all the time. (Though maybe they offer a subscription for more intermittent use?)
 
There may be some good stuff on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation and just rubbish so looking at more reliable sources like the links here may be better.
If you are interested in the low carb approach then you may find this link helpful, it is one many have found successful.
 
I'm 95% of the time in green and have never hit 11 mmol/L so I am going to have to pay.
Why do you need a CGM then?
 
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