Funding outcome

Regular exercise has many benefits for people with type 1 diabetes. It improves health and quality of life. It can also cause large drops in blood sugar during and after activity. Fear of low blood sugar is a major barrier to being active in people with type 1 diabetes, as it can cause coma and even death. This fear may explain why most adults with type 1 diabetes do not meet the recommended physical activity levels. To stop blood sugar from dropping during activity, experts recommend using less insulin or eating more carbohydrate. These suggestions are based on studies that tested only men or very few women. Women probably have different insulin and/or carbohydrate needs to keep stable blood sugar during exercise than men. These needs may also vary throughout the menstrual cycle in women with type 1 diabetes. No one has studied how these monthly cycles might affect the risk of having dangerously low blood sugar during exercise. The lack of understanding about the effects of the menstrual cycle on blood sugar might explain why women with type 1 diabetes are less active than men with type 1 diabetes. With aging, people with type 1 diabetes lose muscle and bone faster than people without diabetes. Women lose bone and muscle faster than men. As such, women with T1D may be at a higher risk of frailty and bone fractures with aging. Exercise can protect against all of these. Being able to exercise without low blood sugar is important. We need to understand blood sugar changes with exercise in women with type 1 diabetes. Our study will measure blood sugar changes during exercise in different phases of the menstrual cycle in women with type 1 diabetes.