Ranges for short women?

mjm0014

Hello - I am new to this group, but have had PCOS for over 12 years. We are trying to get pregnant, and this has inspired me to get back on the low carb wagon. I started seeing a new Dr. (in Lewisville,TX in case anyone is interested) who is all about low carb and has a specific weight-loss program, including monthly checkins. Last visit we checked my blood work. When I reviewed it, a few of the measures were w/in a few points in the lower or upper range, very close to outside the normal range.

Mind you, I've been done <40 net carbs for abt 3 months
Metformin 500mg *2
Fasting 14 hrs before the blood tests

Glucose - 97 ("normal range" 65-99)
a1c - 5.5 ("normal range" 4.8 - 5.6)
Testosterone % - 17.4 ("normal range" 3.0 - 18.0)

Normally, I would be happy with these numbers, but I have lost abt 20lbs during this time, was fasting, on metformin, and have been really good on low carb. They seems to be too high for the actions I have been taking. I have been pretty disciplined, even weighing out my food.

So, here is my question - what is the normal range? If I recall correctly, most "normal' ranges are based on taller women. I am 62 inches, small boned, but have always been overweight.

Have any other shorter women thought about this or done any research? Any links that could help clue in? Thanks to you all in advance! - MT

Dragonwolf

To my knowledge, these numbers aren't really reliant on height. For example, I'm on the taller end (5'10"), and my numbers weren't much different than yours (ie - they fell within what most doctors consider the "normal" range, even though they were toward the thresholds) while fasting, but it was obvious my body wasn't tolerating them at those levels, because I wasn't able to lose weight until I went on Metformin - and even then, it had to be at 1000mg 2x daily before I started seeing changes. Additionally, things like glucose and A1C aren't reliant on size at all. A blood glucose reading of 50 or below, for example, is dangerously low regardless of if you're a 5'0" woman who's 90lbs soaking wet or a 6'2" man who's closing in on 250lbs at his first-thing-in-the-morning-butt-naked weigh-in.

That said, it may take a while for your hormones to get into your ideal range, and you may still need to tweak things. You could talk to your doctor about increasing your Metformin, or you could lower your carbs more (how many carbs are you at now? While most consider "low carb" to be anything under 150g, some people need to go below 100g to even start seeing results). Or, you could do nothing and let your weight loss help your hormones. You said you've lost 20lbs, that's nothing to sneeze at! Continue that weight loss, and your other numbers may follow.

It might help you get some perspective if you have your "before" numbers. Get them out and look at how your numbers have changed, and keep in mind that even changes like a .1 decrease in A1C is still significant, especially for 3 months (and it's more significant for the numbers with smaller ranges, such as the A1C).