DRWF Women and Diabetes interviews: Diabetes tech advocate Greta Ehlers
The DRWF Woman and Diabetes series welcomes Greta Ehlers, who is living with type 1 diabetes and is a big advocate for encouraging technology innovation in diabetes management to make it less intrusive.
At the heart of this project is a simple but powerful belief: every woman living with diabetes deserves to feel seen, heard, and supported.
Across the UK, women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes navigate a lifelong journey shaped not only by their condition, but also by the many milestones and challenges unique to womanhood – from adolescence and pregnancy, through menopause, to later life.
Alongside managing blood glucose levels, they balance careers, family, relationships, and their own health and wellbeing.
Yet too often, these experiences are underrepresented in public conversations about diabetes.
Many women tell us they have never heard a story that truly reflects their own – and that lack of visibility can leave them feeling isolated, misunderstood, or unseen.
The Women and Diabetes podcast series aims to change that.
Greta Ehlers is a medical technology professional and speaker driven by a mission to ignite innovation in the field of diabetes technology.
Greta is also living with type 1 diabetes.
Greta said: “I am passionate about many things. One of them is diabetes tech, diabetes awareness, helping start-ups get their solution off the ground and make a difference for people living with type 1 diabetes, like myself.
DRWF: Can you talk through your early experiences being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes?
Greta: Looking back, I really had all the symptoms they'll tell you about in the books. I was nine-years-old and on summer holiday with my best friends, without my parents. I don't remember too much from that holiday, but I remember that I couldn't sleep because I had to go to the bathroom every couple of minutes. I was tired all the time and thirsty. I could drink glasses and glasses of water and it wouldn't help. When I got back home after 10 days, my parents said, “Oh, you lost a lot of weight.” But I had been eating normally. We all felt something was off. The excessive drinking of water continued. My parents took me to a doctor and they took a finger prick and the figures were way too high. I don't remember that much, but needed to rush me to hospital and told me I would have to take injections for the rest of my life. I remember that sentence very clearly. When you are nine-years-old, it is absolutely terrifying.”
Despite the shock at her new diagnosis, Greta enjoyed the time in hospital: “I stayed in hospital for around two weeks and honestly, I had a great time. There were really nice nurses, nice doctors, other kids around me that were around the same age that got the same diagnosis. My family and my friends would come with presents. I thought this is great and I guess I didn't realise back then what it would mean. I was taught how to inject myself and do the finger pricks and carb count and all of that, and somehow I don't really remember it as being something very annoying. I think I was just like, okay, I guess that's what I have to do now.”
“Back then I couldn't really comprehend it meant the rest of my life. I don't really think that's maybe what you think as a nine-year-old, but it wasn't like a huge, terrifying thing. I think once I kind of came out of hospital I felt like life just continued as it did before.”
In her late teens, Greta began to have more philosophical questions about her condition: “I had a very frustrating point when I was around 18, because it never really hit me as a kid. It came a bit later and I had so many questions that I wanted answers to and my healthcare professionals couldn't really give them to me. And then I was thinking I think now it will help speaking to someone else.”
On starting a social media account, Greta finally connected with a community who understood what she was going through: “That really changed a lot because I met a lot of people who are living with type 1 diabetes and this was not just a “me” thing. This was 50 other people who I met within 48 hours who were going through the same thing. I think whenever I had questions that weren't strictly related to my insulin pump or something, these were the people that had the answers I needed, because most of the healthcare professionals and endocrinologists did not have diabetes themselves. They know what is in the in the books, but they did not know the living reality of type 1 diabetes, whereas these people did.”
DRWF: A lot of young people find it difficult when they first go to university, for example, because everybody's out drinking and partying and eating what they want, or probably not eating very well at all. Did you find that was an issue?
Greta: “I have been incredibly careful with alcohol. For context I grew up in the Bavarian countryside in Germany, where people start drinking beer very early. I was always thinking I don't know if I get drunk, whether I would still be aware of the condition that I have to manage that could potentially be life threatening. If I was drunk, do I still remember that I need to check? Can I tell the difference between being tipsy and feeling shaky because my blood glucose is dropping? So, I've been very careful with that. I've never envied the people around me that did do it. I was just it's my decision. I could if I wanted, but I didn't really want to let go of that control. To be on the dance floor and do a finger prick test and put that strip in and then wait with your little blood glucose meter and try to read what it says on the dance floor. That just seemed annoying, to be honest.”
DRWF: Tell us something about your diabetes tech and what a difference it has made to your life.
Greta: “You know what is going on at all times. It has made a huge difference during the night. I always struggled with low blood glucose during the night and the “dawn phenomenon,” where blood glucose goes up randomly at 4am, even though I am fast asleep. That changed things. I don't need to remember or remind myself to check if I had a busy day. Back when I only had finger prick tests, suddenly that was gone, I could just check the reader or my phone. It took off quite a lot of mental load somehow.”
DRWF: How quickly would you mention to somebody you are dating that you are living with type 1 diabetes and how quickly does that impact on, say, a sexual relationship?
Greta: “I'm very open. I've always been open with that. I mean, I have the devices on my arm, but for me, it's part of me. If somebody has a problem, then leave me alone, date someone else. I think. I've never been ashamed of my diabetes, ever. I've not had a single day where I felt ashamed.
“I really like bringing up the conversation around diabetes and sex, because somehow sex is a topic that is not really considered a lot when we talk about diabetes management, even though sex is such a key part of general wellbeing. There are a lot of extra things to think about when you have diabetes and you are sexually active and you get diagnosed with diabetes. There is vascular damage, that people with diabetes have more, and you might not orgasm as easily. You might not feel as much. Can I check my CGM?
“Sex and diabetes is a conversation we should have more often, and especially for people that are even younger and they are 16 or 17. You maybe have your first sexual experiences and either you get diagnosed before that and then you have this thing that you have always been managing, or you get diagnosed later on, and then suddenly there's this additional thing to think about. I'm a big fan of opening up this conversation because it's not spoken about enough.”
Greta is currently working with Diabetes Center Berne in Switzerland, on a project researching how the menstrual cycle affects women using continuous glucose monitoring devices.
Greta said: “We research in diabetes and we want to translate this research into solutions available on the market that help people with diabetes. This is where all the start-ups come in that I work with, or scout for.
“We have a new project which is about menstrual cycle, because it has often been overlooked. There is research showing that more women than men use insulin pumps. We are having this whole conversation about closing the loop, yet the menstrual cycle has been ignored for years. You can’t close a loop. You can’t have something where the person with diabetes does not have to interfere with the system. If you ignore this whole topic that concerns almost half of the population, right? There is not a lot of data on it. We want to close this gap by looking at how menstruation impacts insulin. Insulin treated diabetes. So that can be type 1, but can also be type 2.
“The menstrual cycle project is a research project and as of now it is about collecting data to see how it is related. I did not know until quite recently that during your during your menstrual cycle, your hormones change. If, during your ovulation, your hormones might go up, that means that you are more insulin resistant and that means that suddenly you need x-amount more insulin to go back in range than compared to a week ago. Then, once your hormones drop in the beginning of your cycle, suddenly you have a lot of hypos (hypoglycaemic episodes, or low blood glucose), because for five days you have been injecting more insulin. Suddenly your hormones drop and you end up in hypos several times a day. That has not really been explored. I know that it is very individual, but there needs to be more research done to see how it is linked. Once we have data, we can translate it into to start-ups and solutions out there, especially when it comes to aid systems. So, where it is a huge conversation about how we skip announcing meals for people with diabetes, that is not the only thing. Then people talk about exercise, yes, but hormones impact it hugely.”
The DRWF Living with Diabetes women's health podcast series is supported by Abbott
Launched to coincide with World Diabetes Day (14th November), the DRWF Women and Diabetes series brings together inspirational women from diverse backgrounds who live with diabetes, to share their life stories in their own words.
We explore how they navigate the different stages of life while managing their condition, and the strategies they use to minimise its impact and live fully.
Sarah Tutton, DRWF Chief Executive, said: “At DRWF, everything we do is grounded in compassion, credibility, and collaboration. We actively listen to the voices of those we serve, ensuring that our initiatives are shaped by lived experience and respond to real-world needs. In doing so, we aim not only to inform and support, but also to inspire hope and positive change within the diabetes community.”
Watch all videos at the DRWF YouTube channel
Listen to the interviews in full as part of the DRWF Living with Diabetes podcast series here
Read more DRWF Podcasts: Launching the Women and Diabetes interviews series for World Diabetes Day
Read more about type 1 diabetes
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