• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

When to talk to diabetes team about planning a pregnancy - Type 1

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.

Lucy12

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Pronouns
She/Her
Hi all!
I was hoping to get some advice about when is the appropriate time to get in touch with my diabetes team about planning for pregnancy? My partner and I were thinking about trying to conceive from around April next year. I have pretty good control overall, mostly averaging over 80% in range, and my last HbA1c result was 40 (although this was last tested just over a year ago). I know I’d need tighter targets for pregnancy and to be taking a high dose of folic acid, I’m just wondering at what point I need to talk to the hospital about my plans, given I’m about 7 months off from what I had in mind.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
 
I’d talk to them as soon as convenient @Lucy12 You can then get access to any pre-conception clinics and if you get anything changed, eg to a first pump, a new pump, a loop, etc, then you can get used to it prior to trying to conceive. You can take the high dose folic acid for months and some people do, of course, because it can take some months to conceive sometimes.
 
You will be recommended to take the higher dose folic acid for at least 3 months before trying to conceive @Lucy12 so I would be asking GP for a referral to pre- conception clinic sooner rather than later if I was you. I asked about it in January (though I'm type 2) with the plan to start trying at the end of June, and was referred then and first seen around the end of February I think. They advised that even though I wasn't planning to ttc for more than 3 months they recommended (and prescribed) starting the high dose folic acid straight away. They will also arrange an HbA1c if they think you need a more up to date one (they told me that target for ttc is 48 or below, I'm unsure if that's exactly the same for type 1)
 
As others have said as soon as you can would be good, get as much prep in as you can’t cause any harm
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top