Can Insulin Spikes and Glucose Levels Cause Infertility and PCOS?

Can Insulin Spikes and Glucose Levels Cause Infertility and PCOS? is taken from D.R.E.A.M.S. - the online program that can help boost your fertility naturally & make your DREAMS of growing your family, come true. This post has affiliate links. 

Glucose monitoring could be a great tool when discovering the perfect fertility diet for you and how you can use food to maximise your chances of getting and staying pregnant - especially when you're dealing with infertility and/or have insulin resistance PCOS.

Let's first understand why lower the amount of glucose spikes you have is important for your fertility in the first place!

When you have a lot of glucose spikes, you'll secrete a lot of insulin, which can lead to noticeable everyday issues like increased cravings, mood swings, and weight changes. Chronically elevated insulin level in the bloodstream can cause cells in your body to absorb too much glucose (sugar) from your blood, causes the liver to release less glucose, and reduces your levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). After a while, your SHBG levels can become low enough, that you'll end up with elevated sex hormones which can affect important ovulation hormones like luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH). 

In simple terms, too much insulin can interact with our sex hormones and dysregulate our fertility. By flattening our glucose curves, we help our hormones, therefore improving our chances of getting and staying pregnant. 

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If you don't know already, insulin is a hormone created by your pancreas that controls the amount of glucose in your bloodstream at any given moment. If you don't have diabetes, insulin helps: 

• Regulate blood sugar levels. After you eat, carbohydrates break down into glucose, a sugar that is the body's primary source of energy. Glucose then enters the bloodstream. The pancreas responds by producing insulin, which allows glucose to enter the body's cells to provide energy.
• Store excess glucose for energy. After you eat — when insulin levels are high — excess glucose is stored in the liver in the form of glycogen. Between meals — when insulin levels are low — the liver releases glycogen into the bloodstream in the form of glucose. This keeps blood sugar levels within a narrow range.

It's not just your diet that can contribute to high glucose and insulin. Excess sugar intake, poor sleep, chronic stress, lack of physical activity, environmental toxins, and genetic factors can all contribute to the issue which, over time, render cells “numb” to the effects of insulin. This process is referred to as insulin resistance - glucose is less able to get into cells, thus more insulin is produced to help drive the excess glucose out of the bloodstream. Many women dealing with PCOS insulin resistance are three to ten times more at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

When you track your blood sugar levels you can help

• Identify blood sugar levels that are high or low and relate your everyday symptoms 
• Track your progress in reaching your overall weight goals
• Learn how diet and exercise affect blood sugar levels
• Understand how other factors, such as illness or stress, affect blood sugar levels
• Help to improve overall sleep quality 

Your fasting blood glucose should be around  ≤90 mg/dl and when you want to maximise your fertility by improving your metabolic health, is to monitor how much your blood sugar spikes after a meal.

You'll want to aim for post-meal glucose of no more than 130 mg/dl, with <120 being the ideal range for most. Also, blood sugar shouldn’t spike more than30 mg/dl from your pre-meal glucose reading – otherwise, you’ll release too much insulin for your body to properly handle.