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Diabetes and birth control

• Birth control pills can affect blood glucose levels and diabetes control.
   
• The intrauterine device (IUD) may lead to infections. Because women with diabetes are already at a higher risk of infection, most should not use the IUD.

What is needed?

In ideal circumstances, women with diabetes will have their disease under good control and be monitored frequently by a health care team knowledgeable in the care of diabetes.

• Patient education is critical. People with diabetes, with the help of their health care providers, can reduce their risk for complications if they are educated about their disease, learn and practice the skills necessary to better control their blood glucose levels, as well as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and receive regular checkups from their health care team. Smokers should stop smoking, and overweight women with diabetes should develop moderate exercise regimens under the guidance of a health care provider to help them achieve a healthy weight.
   
• Health care team education is vital. Because people with diabetes have a multi-system chronic disease, they are best monitored and managed by highly skilled health care professionals trained with the latest information on diabetes to help ensure early detection and appropriate treatment of the serious complications of the disease. A team approach to treating and monitoring the complex facets of this systemic disease serves the best interests of the patient.
   
• Non-diabetic pregnant women should be checked for gestational diabetes between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy unless they are in the low-risk category. This category includes women who are less than 25 years of age, have no family history of diabetes, have a normal body weight and are not a member of an ethnic/racial group with high prevalence of diabetes (i.e., Hispanic/Latino, African American, Native American, and Asian).