Glucose Self-Monitoring Supplies

Glucose self-monitoring access demands attention.

Our work connects community-level data, patient testimony, and direct pressure on manufacturers and governments, because none of those levers works in isolation.

For people living with diabetes, access to blood glucose monitoring supplies including test strips, glucometers, and lancets, and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are essential to staying alive and well.

Our Out-of-Pocket Expenses and Rationing Survey documents what barriers to that access look like in practice: globally, people with type 1 diabetes are spending an average of 12% of their income on insulin and glucose self-monitoring supplies, and over a third reported rationing those supplies in the past year. In low- and lower-middle-income countries, that figure climbs to 64% of income. These numbers come from our community’s own experience, reported in their own words.

The supply access crisis is acute in the Middle East and North Africa, where T1International’s regional advocates have been fighting on multiple fronts.

• When CGM prices spiked across the region, our team collected over 1,500 petition signatures calling on Abbott to lower costs.
• In Lebanon, advocate Cyrine successfully pressured the Ministry of Health to continue subsidizing CGM supplies for families who depended on them during an economic collapse.
• In Gaza, our team has documented what happens when that safety net disappears entirely, with people rationing expired insulin and losing access to test strips amid a collapsed health system.