Is CGM Worth It in LADA?
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
A continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, is a small sensor worn on the arm or abdomen that measures glucose in the fluid under your skin every few minutes. In India these are usually worn for a fortnight at a time.
CGM is not essential in LADA. But there are two points where it earns its cost more clearly than in Type 2 diabetes.
The first is catching progression. HbA1c is an average, and averages hide things. A CGM shows variability — the swings between high and low — and rising variability is often the earliest sign that your own insulin supply is thinning, appearing before HbA1c moves much at all.
The second is starting insulin. The first weeks on insulin involve finding doses, and a CGM makes that faster and safer. It shows overnight patterns you would never catch with finger pricks, and it warns you when glucose is falling rather than only telling you where it is.
A sensible middle path, given the cost, is to wear one for a couple of weeks at specific moments rather than continuously: when your control starts drifting unexplained, when insulin is being started, or when your regimen changes substantially.
Finger-prick testing remains necessary alongside it — for confirming a low, and when a reading does not match how you feel.