Over the past couple of weeks, I've had a few blood tests done, thanks to having a new doctor, and as of today, I've got all of my numbers back.

Now, anyone that's seen my past postings knows that I heavily advocate getting fasting insulin tested, and not just glucose. While I have a number of results that I can share, this post will focus on the relevant ones to this topic -- glucose and insulin.

Let's start with the numbers doctors usually use:

Glucose: 109
A1C: 5.5

Looks okay, right? I mean, the glucose is a little high, but still below the threshold of 120 considered for prediabetes, and the 5.5 A1C is still firmly in the "normal" zone. So...doctor says there's not really much to do. Glucose is warning, but with a normal A1C, it's for all intents and purposes part and parcel with PCOS.

Now, what about insulin?

31

Okay, so the agreed upon range for "normal" is huge -- anywhere from 3-5 according to Mercola and a few other sources, to the far more liberal 20 according to LabCorp. Even going by LabCorp's numbers, that's quite a ways out of range.

To compare, just before I started Metformin the last time, my fasting insulin was 18. The last draw I had before stopping it was 19. My glucose has consistently been in the 90s range. Yet my fasting insulin has nearly doubled in the nine months since.

Suddenly, "there's not really much to do" turns into "let's get you a referral to an endocrinologist."