FGMs and CGMs

Two years after my diagnosis I finally came to the conclusion that a glycaemic sensor would have probably facilitated my blood glucose control, and so I finally found the courage to say goodbye to the good old gluocometers. I highly recommend to do the same, if you can: in retrospect, this has been one of my best decisions for what concerns diabetes management.

There actually are two main types of glucose monitoring systems: Flash Glucose Monitors (FGMs) and Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs).

The first ones, mainly represented by Abbott and its Freestyle Libre 1 and 2 sensors, are the ones I'm currently using, although I modified them making them "upgraded CGMs" for all intents and purposes (want to know how? Click here). By the way, for what concerns the functioning of a proper FGM, it basically works like this: you scan the sensor anytime you want, and the system provides you the current BG alongside with the track of the past few hours. Freestyle Libre 2 has also introduced a very useful alarm function, which makes the device authomatically sound in case your glycaemia reaches dangerous levels.

The second ones, mainky represented by Medtronic's Dexcoms and by Abbott's new Freestyle Libre 3, are characterised by an autonomous and continue tracking of your blood glucose levels: the system usually provides you your actual BG every five minutes, also in this case alarming you in case it reaches undesirable levels. Furthermore, this kind of devices can usually be calibrated.

In conclusion, no matter if FGM or CGM, I strongly recommend you opt for one of these two if you haven't already done it, as both of them allow you to do one of the most fundamental things in your diabetes management: keeping track of your "glycaemic history" with exponentially higher precision than a normal glucometer, and, last but not least, they introduce an enormously important indicator for your diabetes management: Time In Range, which will be discussed in other articles.