I am Christel from Diabetes Strong and I got my hands on a Libre 2 reader, or
receiver, and a Libre 2 sensor, so I thought let me do a Libre 2 review.
Before we talk more about what is the Libre 2 and how can it
support your diabetes management,
let me just get the sensor on, and the system up and running.
Now that we are up and running with the Libre 2 sensor, I’m going to wear it for
the full two weeks, which is duration of the sensor, and I’m going to record
how I like it so that I can include that at the end of this video.
Let's briefly go over what Libre 2 is before I get into the review. Freestyle Libre 2,
or just the Libre 2, is a Continuous Glucose Monitor, or CGM,
so what that means is that it will keep track of your blood sugars without any
finger sticks, and it's currently FDA approved for anyone the age of 4 and up.
You'll be able to see your blood sugar readings by either holding up the
receiver or the app on your phone, directly up to the sensor and it will then display your
blood sugar reading on the screen along with a graph of your last eight hours
of readings. It'll also give you an arrow, so it’ll show an arrow saying okay are your
blood sugars stable, that’d be a flat arrow, rising or decreasing.
The sensor updates every
minute, but has an eight-hour memory, so that means
you have to remember to scan the sensor at least every eight hours.
The big difference between Libre 1 and Libre 2,
and today we're talking about Libre 2
is that Libre 2 offers alarms, which means that you will automatically be
warned, you don't have to scan, the system will automatically warn you
if your blood sugars are high or low, or if you lose signal,
but it does require that you're within 20 feet of your receiver at all times.
The Libre iOS app was approved in August 2021,
so that means that now that I’m recording this video the Android app has still not been
approved. Since the iOS app was just approved by the FDA, it was actually
approved while I was wearing my sensor for this experiment,
I could only use the receiver. So this review is going to be based solely
on me using the receiver for the Libre 2 system.
Please note that as with any other CGM system it's not considered accurate enough
for dosing right off the bat, so on the screen
or on the app, you will see a little magnifying
glass and a blood drop, and you'll see that for the first 12 hours, and that's simply
the system indicating that you should not base dosing decisions off the CGM just yet.
Overall I really enjoyed how small the sensor is, it didn't bother me whatsoever.
The insertion was
painless and it stayed on for the full two weeks. It was also fairly accurate,
let's talk more about that.
I generally found the Libre 2 to be accurate I did a comparison to both
finger sticks and I also wore a Dexcom G6
and they were all within 10 mg/dl of each other, on average
I did find that the Libre 2 gave me slightly lower levels than my finger sticks did, but it
wasn't really significant and it wasn't consistent.
The way I look at this is that for a system to be
not trustworthy I would say that it have to consistently be off
and have to be off more than the 10 mg/dl.
The way I think about it is that would 10 mg/dl changed my management decisions,
and the truth is no. If my blood sugar is 150 or 140 mg/dl
it doesn't really matter, it doesn't change how many units of insulin I’ll take.
I only had one Libre 2 sensor so all my experience is based on one sensor,
but I did have quite a few sensor errors
with this particular sensor, as well as some receiver errors.
All of these errors resolved themselves, so I didn't have to contact Abbott to get a new
sensor, but it's obviously annoying when the system doesn't work and unfortunately,
one of the sensor errors was when I could see on
my other CGM that my blood sugars were dropping rapidly.
I had two arrows down and that's not really a situation
where you want to be without your CGM.
The Libre 2 receiver, I didn't love it.
I had to use this when I was wearing the sensor simply
because the app the Libre 2 app was not yet FDA approved.
Funny enough it was approved halfway through me wearing the sensor,
so after a week the Libre 2 app was FDA approved for iOS only,
so I mean still not for Android, if you have an Android phone
you still have to use a receiver.
The reason why I didn't love it is well, first of all, it's another device to haul around
and I would actually forget it quite often, second is the battery life is not amazing,
probably because of the alarms, it vibrates, you can also put on sound.
But the battery would last me about 24 to 36 hours
I'd have to remember to charge it overnight, also
it's not amazing quality, and it did give me quite a few receiver errors. The Libre 2
alarms are fairly basic, you can set a high alert, you can set a low alert,
and set sensor loss, and you can either set to vibrate or with sound.
But they're effective and I would hear the device even when it was on silent.
Let's talk integration with other devices. Right now the Libre 2 is kind
of a standalone device, at least here in the US,
it will be integrated with the Omnipod Horizon when that comes to market,
but that's not here yet, so right now you won't really be able to
see your Libre reading on any pumps or integrated with any smartpens.
So it's a standalone system.
Now let's talk price.
I checked my insurance and my insurance covers all CGM's at a daily rate
so that means that Libre would cost me the same as it cost me for a Dexcom system
and that's about 70 dollars a month.
But you know, that's for me, you need to check your insurance to see do they
even cover Libre, and at what price because that can make a huge difference
on whether or not this system is for you.
If you have to buy the Libre 2 cash, that means without insurance, here in
the US, the US list prices that I found for one sensor,
so that's for two weeks of sensor wear, was 60 dollars,
so that's 4 dollars and 30 cents a day. Overall I think the Libre 2 is a great CGM
solution it's easy to use, and it didn't feel intrusive,
It's not as sophisticated as other CGM systems such as the Dexcom G6
however, if this is what's in your budget and you're not looking for
system integration with insulin pumps, then this could be a great option.
Thank you for watching my Libre 2 review.
If you enjoyed this video, and like to see more from me, please click
the subscribe button and you'll be informed whenever I post new content.
I always appreciate
any interactions so please give this video a like or comment below.
Thank you so much for watching