I'm So Pleased I Trusted My Instincts

When 30-year-old Hannah Byrne started feeling ill during her second pregnancy in 2016, she suspected something was wrong – and she was right. Diagnosed with gestational diabetes at the time, four years later, Hannah developed type 2 diabetes. Here, she shares her journey

Last September, I experienced some pretty scary health problems. I was having wicked migraines, found it difficult to concentrate, and kept forgetting things.

At one point, I forgot to click Evie, my youngest, into her car seat before I drove away. Both my mum and my partner, Ben, had noticed I was struggling and suggested I visit my GP.

When I did, I was told the symptoms I was experiencing were probably the result of stress from my job as the manager of an early childhood center, combined with the coronavirus pandemic. But I wasn’t convinced; I got really upset and had to beg for a blood test. When the results came back, my HbA1c was 56. No wonder I’d been feeling rubbish.

I was told I had type 2 diabetes but didn’t really know what that meant for my future. I do now.

Double trouble

In 2008, when I was 18, I found out I had endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. My endometriosis has since been dealt with surgically, but my PCOS has played a constant role in my health and wellbeing ever since, including making me insulin-resistant. Back then, I didn’t fully understand the impact that could have or how much more of a risk it meant I had of developing diabetes.