PharmD_Rodriguez said:

PCOS success story with glycaemic control: as someone with polycystic ovary syndrome, this medication has been transformative beyond weight loss.

My labs after 6 months on glycaemic control: A1C 5.7%, fasting glucose 92 mg/dL, fasting insulin 5 uIU/mL. My endo says these are "textbook perfect."

For context, my baseline A1C was 7.9% and fasting glucose was 117 mg/dL. The improvement has been dramatic and consistent.

CarlaRPh_TPA said:

Fasting glucose improved within weeks and my HbA1c barely moved for three months, which I now understand and did not at the time.

Complete metabolic panel trending on glycaemic control — sharing because comprehensive data helps everyone:

The insulin resistance improvement (HOMA-IR) is what my endo focuses on most. Going from 4.5 to near 1.0 is a metabolic transformation.

BenResearch_OR said:

My labs after 6 months on glycaemic control: A1C 5.7%, fasting glucose 92 mg/dL, fasting insulin 5 uIU/mL.

Fasting insulin is the lab my functional medicine doctor cares about most for glycaemic control: it's a much earlier marker of metabolic dysfunction than glucose or A1C.

My fasting insulin: 29 → 15 → 6 uIU/mL over 9 months. Target is <7. By the time your fasting glucose is elevated, your insulin has been elevated for YEARS trying to compensate.

Ask your doctor to include fasting insulin in your bloodwork panel. It's cheap (~$20) and incredibly informative.

Following on from MounjBrad — and this may be the naive question:

What would you measure differently if you were starting again?

Dr.BariatricHTX said:

Fasting insulin is the lab my functional medicine doctor cares about most for glycaemic control: it's a much earlier marker of metabolic dysfunction…

Glycemic variability as the key metric for glycaemic control success: my coefficient of variation (CV) on CGM dropped from 38% to 20%. Target is <36%, with <30% being ideal.

Why this matters more than average glucose: large glucose swings cause oxidative stress, endothelial damage, and promote advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). A flat glucose line at 95 mg/dL is metabolically healthier than oscillating between 60 and 160, even if the average is the same.