About this episode

Melissa Slemp discusses her 44-year journey with type 1 diabetes and the impact of hormones on blood sugar management during perimenopause.

Melissa Slemp has lived with type 1 diabetes for 44 years — since she was diagnosed in 1982, before glucometers, before CGMs, back when insulin came from vials and syringes and "boiling your needles" was still a recent memory for a lot of people. In this episode, we trace that whole arc: what early management actually looked like, the high-risk pregnancy she navigated in the 90s, and the moment — after more than four decades on injections — she finally switched to a pump. If you've ever wondered what it's like to hand over that much control after that much time, this is the conversation. But the real heart of this episode is what happens to blood sugar when a woman with type 1 diabetes hits perimenopause. Melissa walks through her own experience of watching her basal insulin needs climb for no obvious reason, the years she spent without an explanation, and what she eventually learned about estrogen, progesterone, and insulin resistance — knowledge she says she had to dig up herself, because most endocrinologists and OBGYNs simply aren't trained in the overlap. That research became the reason she wrote Highs, Lows, and Hormones, a survival guide for women navigating diabetes from…

People in this episode

Host: Diabetics Doing Things

Guest: Melissa Slemp

Topics covered

• type 1 diabetes
• hormones
• perimenopause
• insulin management
• women's health
• diabetes research

Keywords

• type 1 diabetes
• hormones
• insulin resistance
• perimenopause
• high-risk pregnancy
• hormone replacement therapy
• women's health
• diabetes management

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Diabetics Doing Things

Books & works: Highs, Lows, and Hormones

More episodes of Diabetics Doing Things Podcast

• Episode 359 - Dexcom CEO on G8, Stolen Sensors, and the Truth from their New Advisory Council · July 1, 2026
• Episode 358 - Travel, Diabetes, and Disrupting What You Think You Know with Dylan Leonard · June 17, 2026

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