While LADA has been known for a while in some small circles it is still not widely tested for

Before they even defined Type 1 and Type 2 there was simply "Juvenile Diabetes" and "Sugar Diabetes" period - if you were a kid you had juvenile and adults got sugar diabetes

There wasn't even an actual test to prove Type 1 until 1974 and A1C as a diagnostic for Type 2 was only adopted in 2009 (officially) so while we tend to think of medicine as super advanced they don't really know much about many things

Before 1993 nobody even thought there was anything other than Type 1 or Type 2 so it makes perfect sense why you were misdiagnosed - not enough doctors even think to look for it and when 90 - 95% of "all diabetics" are Type 2 that makes it even less likely a doctor would suspect otherwise if you are over age 20 - they are "playing the odds"

Back about 4 years ago a British Medical Journal article pointed out that patients between 25 and 35 that are initially diagnosed as Type 2 should have an antibody (GAD) test done to check for LADA because in a small sample group they found that 20% of patients in that age class diagnosed as Type 2 actually had LADA

But even if you are "initially" misdiagnosed with Type 2 that doesn't effect your treatment since LADA is "initially" treated the same as Type 2 however you will "quickly progress to needing insulin" unlike a typical Type 2 who may never need it

The short answer is, until the Health Guidelines are updated to advise that a Type 2 diagnosis in a particular age bracket should be followed up with an autoimmune anti-body test to rule in/out LADA the misdiagnosis will continue

However, even misdiagnosed your "initial treatment" will be the same. The only real benefit to the correct diagnosis would be that both you AND your doctor would "know" that as soon as your numbers start to rise that you should be placed on insulin instead of playing around with typical Type 2 meds

Type 2 is a metabolic disorder

LADA is an autoimmune disease where typically only 1 antibody attack your pancreas and kills it's ability to produce insulin "slowly" (months or years) - it was discovered "accidentally" when they were doing Type 1 research and notice an antibody in some Type 2 patients (which confused them so more studies were done but they started calling it 1.5 - LADA was defined in 1993 but mostly just amongst researchers and certainly not your Primary Doc's guidelines)

Type 1 is an autoimmune disease where 2 or 3 different antibodies might attack your pancreas and quickly kill the ability to produce insulin (often in weeks)

So not hard to "understand" it's just that none of your doctors were either aware of the condition or thought to look for it. And given you were initially diagnosed over 20 years ago it was still barely more than a "theory" there "might be" another type of diabetes out there besides 1 and 2....

We have a couple of members here with LADA - they too were initially misdiagnosed with Type 2 and eventually got sorted out when their "Type 2" wasn't responding the way it should

If you now have the diagnosis they would have typically done what is called a GAD (or GADA) test to find which autoimmune antibody is effecting you (one of them is actually a little less nasty then the others and would mean you could treat with typical Type 2 meds for "longer") and then if the Doc is on the ball they would have ordered something called a C-Peptide test (or possibly a fasting insulin test - but C-Peptide is often preferred)

Either would tell them effectively how much insulin your pancreas is still producing and then they could track that with future tests to see how quickly you are advancing which can really help make the best treatment choices in a more timely manner instead of simply always "reacting" to a change/advancement

It's still Diabetes and it still sucks but at least all of them can be treated. Just "eventually" you would switch for Living like a Type 2 to living like a Type 1

To give you an idea of how few doctors are well-versed in LADA: I’m a doctor myself, and know about LADA, yet when I was diagnosed with Type 2 at age 30, I just went with it. (Although I had a niggling feeling at the back of my mind.) I only asked my primary care doctor to test for antibodies when I became ketotic. Sorry you had such a long journey. Hope it helps to know that you are not alone. I suspect most people with LADA have a roundabout route to the correct diagnosis. 🌸

The information you provided,is absolutely wonderful. Your answer has given me a bit of relief and understanding of what and how this happened. I was just so frustrated and scared that I would die at the hands of doctors that clearly didn't care about me. (In my mind) Now I understand that its got to be a joint effort to make sure we do everything we can together. I am willing to help and do the research, in order to get control and keep control of my number's. Thank you for the insight..

A GADA of >200 (should be under 5) is what clued them in that it wasn't type2, but an autoimmune LADA type1.5, but now possibly a type1. I'm 53 btw. Try to see if you can get that test. It's an easy blood draw.