Benefits of CGM

CGM gives you greater awareness of your blood glucose levels and can help with your overall diabetes management.

Some key features of CGM include:

Real-time data of your blood glucose levels.
A trend arrow indicates whether your glucose level is falling or rising.
A trend graph showing results over the last three, six or 24 hours.
An alarm setting to alert you when your glucose level is high or low.
An option to download data so that you can review it with your diabetes care team.

CGM gives you a clearer understanding of your glucose levels by showing the full picture.

You can see what is happening at times when you wouldn’t normally test, such as during the night.
Reviewing trend data can help identify patterns in your glucose levels.
Understand the impact that foods, activity, stress, illness and medications have on your glucose and diabetes management.

Having access to the data helps guide your decision-making.

With trend arrows, you can see the direction your glucose levels are going, allowing you to take action sooner when needed.
You can tailor your insulin doses more carefully.

Many people who use CGM find that it reduces some of the stress that comes with managing diabetes.

Alarms can alert you when your glucose levels are going low, reducing the fear of sudden hypoglycemia.
For parents or carers, it provides an increased sense of safety with children who cannot recognise or express symptoms of hypo- or hyperglycaemia.
Reduced the number of finger-prick checks.

Reducing day-to-day variability in glucose levels can improve long-term outcomes.

You can review your data with your healthcare team and develop tailored strategies for you.
Better day-to-day management can help improve your HbA1c level over time.

Wearing a device every day is not for everyone, and some people experience negatives with CGM. These include:

Becoming overwhelmed with the amount of data available.
Some people don’t like wearing the sensor and can find it uncomfortable.
You will still need to carry out finger-prick checks at times.
If you are not eligible for CGM on the NHS, it can be expensive to fund it yourself.

Dawn Adams