New Data Shed Light on Type 1 Diabetes Male Predominance

[Northerner]

MADRID, Spain — New research sheds light on the male predominance in type 1 diabetes, finding that the risk between men and women diverges around age 10 years.

Data from more than 200,000 first-degree relatives of people with type 1 diabetes who were screened for type 1 diabetes risk in the TrialNet program showed that "there's a clear interaction with age and male sex being a risk factor. At the age of ten in girls, there seems to be this tipping point where the risk of type of diabetes dramatically reduces," lead investigator Richard Oram, MD, of the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News.

There was a steep decline in 5-year type 1 diabetes risk in women who were screened and positive for type 1 diabetes-related autoantibodies prior to age 10 years compared to after 10 years. In contrast, among men the risk of progression remained steady as age at screening increased. The reasons for this aren't clear, but the age of 10 years "goes with puberty, so it raises the question as to whether these are puberty-related changes," Oram said.

New Data Shed Light on Type 1 Diabetes Male Predominance

Gender prevalence is equal in young children, but trajectory appears to diverge around puberty.

www.medscape.com

 

[rebrascora]

MADRID, Spain — New research sheds light on the male predominance in type 1 diabetes, finding that the risk between men and women diverges around age 10 years.

Data from more than 200,000 first-degree relatives of people with type 1 diabetes who were screened for type 1 diabetes risk in the TrialNet program showed that "there's a clear interaction with age and male sex being a risk factor. At the age of ten in girls, there seems to be this tipping point where the risk of type of diabetes dramatically reduces," lead investigator Richard Oram, MD, of the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News.

There was a steep decline in 5-year type 1 diabetes risk in women who were screened and positive for type 1 diabetes-related autoantibodies prior to age 10 years compared to after 10 years. In contrast, among men the risk of progression remained steady as age at screening increased. The reasons for this aren't clear, but the age of 10 years "goes with puberty, so it raises the question as to whether these are puberty-related changes," Oram said.

New Data Shed Light on Type 1 Diabetes Male Predominance

Gender prevalence is equal in young children, but trajectory appears to diverge around puberty.

www.medscape.com

I wasn't aware that there was a difference between sexes in developing Type 1 but I do wonder if that disparity is perhaps redressed to some degree in later life with menopause. I suspect that menopause may well have been a trigger or tipping point for my own diagnosis and similarly hormones are changing during pregnancy which may also be a trigger although I appreciate than many women who develop gestational diabetes are Type 2, but I think there will be a percentage who are Type 1 and after the pregnancy when the hormones settle down, it may go dormant for a few more years before another trigger causes the crisis point. The high insulin resistance at pregnancy perhaps giving a brief glimpse that there is a problem with beta cells mass.