@A DiabetesTeam Member

I do know that with hereditary diabetes you simply add up all the values for each relative and it gives you a "how many times more prone then average" - my calculated risk was 9.9 times greater - so when I hit the "1 in 10 chance for joe/jane normal that put my risk at over 99% (within 5 years which gives them a bit of error rate).

I did a bit of reading on Gestational Diabetes statistics in relation to Type 2 (as a result of your post to see if there was an answer) and in fact it looks like it was a "calculated guess".

In general terms any incidence of Gestational Diabetes (GDM) puts you at a 60% greater risk of developing Diabetes "some time". So at age 40 when the normal odds are 1 in 100 your odds would have been 1.6 in 100 (assuming a single incidence of GDM).

But in the same (cohort study - which is just a fancy word for a study that studied a whole bunch of other studies results on the topic) they calculated what they call a "real risk" of 12.6% chance (averaged) of developing Type 2 in reaction to each incidence of GDM.

So while I didn't see anything about the "8 year part", 7 GDM's X 12.6% would up your actual "odds of getting type 2" (as opposed to simply being at X amount of "risk") would be 88.2%

Sounds like the Doc has probably seen this before and did some (study) themselves and didn't simply use a Chrystal Ball after all 😀

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A Diabete...

I will spend a minute talking about the "we have no clue and nothing at all to point at" Type 2's.

They fall into two very small groups that barely account for 5% of Type 2's.

They were usually active, skinny, ate well and weren't old enough to be "falling apart yet" but still either ended up with a severe insulin deficiency or severe resistance.

Their diabetes is often much more difficult to control and they, practically from the start, need far more (typically) later stage medication to manage their sugars.

Almost nothing is known about what causes it - perhaps the Beast used VooDoo?

If you fall into that small group you will likely never know and won't even be able to point at the known risk factors to say "maybe".

The last bunch I will mention is the "newest bunch" that will likely be categorized as a new sub-type before too long.

Those are the "Covid Induced Severely Insulin Deficient".

Covid, the actual virus and not any of the vaccines, attacks the organs as it is running wild through your system. For those already Diabetic it "can" advance your condition significantly but for those that "didn't have diabetes" they are seeing newly diagnosed that have had most of their ability to produce their own insulin destroyed by the virus.

It attacks and kills the Islet cells which produce the insulin in the pancreas. The viciousness of the attack is similar to what a Type 1 diabetic would see when their own body sees the pancreas as an infection and attacks it.

They (medical dudes) don't know a great deal about this Covid induced version. Don't know if it may be temporary (Islet cells can be regenerated in someone who is not diabetic) - so it is (possible maybe) that the Covid Cooties might eventually lose their effectiveness or whatever and the condition will improve (??)

But until we see this play itself out they are being diagnosed as Type 2's (most probably because that is how they are being treated and medicated) even though "their diabetes" is not metabolic.

If the condition persists I would suspect that it will be reclassified similar to what happened to LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults - or Adults that get Type 1 generally in their mid to late 30's) or MODY (Mature Onset Diabetes in the Young - where young children develop Type 2 which was almost unheard of 20 years ago) - the reclassification for no other reason then to allow a more focused treatment plan for the anomalies (compared to regular Type 1 or Type 2) that is unique to that sub-type.

Diabetes Sucks

We all wish we could go back and do it over again or at least be able to point at a single event that would let us say "If I had only done that" we wouldn't be here today.

But for many, that will always be a mystery.

Yes, Gestational Diabetes also really jacks your odds of getting Type 2 - yet another of the risk factors but they can't exactly draw a straight line between one and the other.

My great grandma lost her leg to it; My grandpa died from gangarene of the big toe. My dad had it; I got it first at 25 years and my brother got it at 50 and the other brother at 57.

Gestational diabetes, obesity and poor diet caught up with me. Not surprised when the beast came knocking at my door.