Infertility

Somewhere about the time that medications for Type II diabetes came into play, doctors began to connect high blood sugar levels with infertility. Women who had been infertile for years, suddenly began to get pregnant after starting to use medications to reduce their blood sugar levels.

High blood sugar complicates the fertility picture in two basic ways:

1. It makes the woman's body less able to produce, and release, an egg. I have not studied whether or not it affects a man's fertility, but it would not be surprising if it did.

2. It reduces blood flow to the uterus, making it more difficult for a fertilized egg to implant successfully. Implantation may fail to occur completely, or the egg may implant, but fail to obtain adequate nourishment, and miscarriage results.

This means that uncontrolled diabetes can affect both the ability to conceive, and the ability to carry a child. It may be responsible for complete infertility, or for repeat miscarriage. Either situation can be acutely painful for the woman who desires to have a child, but keeps being denied the privilege.

Infertility specialists will now treat high blood sugar levels much sooner than many other doctors will, because they know that even small elevations in the levels can trigger repeat miscarriage or prevent conception. The preferred method of treating it though, is with medications for insulin resistance. For insulin dependent women, their only option is close monitoring, strict dietetic control, and careful attention to insulin levels.

Normally, small elevations in blood sugar levels won't make much of a difference in fertility. But some women already have other factors that make it difficult for them to conceive or carry, and for them, blood sugar levels may be the determining factor in whether or not they can bear a child.

Written by Laura Wheeler, Owner of Firelight Business Enterprises, Inc.