Elizabeth Perkins Says Don’t Take No for an Answer After Doctors Missed Her Diabetes for 3 Years
Elizabeth Perkins had a glucose level of 640 — and four doctors told her nothing was wrong
Key Takeaways
AI-generated summary reviewed by our editorial team.- Doctors dismissed Elizabeth Perkins' symptoms for 3 years before a nurse caught her diabetes.
- Her blood glucose was 640 at diagnosis—a level that can trigger a life-threatening coma.
- Perkins now checks her glucose five times a day and urges every woman to advocate for herself.
For three long years, actress Elizabeth Perkins knew something was terribly wrong. She was exhausted, losing weight at an alarming rate, constantly thirsty and battling pounding headaches that kept her in bed for days. Yet doctor after doctor told her she was fine. Her story is a powerful reminder that when it comes to your health, you may need to be your own loudest champion.
Watch Episode 14 right here! ‘What Matters with Elizabeth Perkins: Art, Authenticity & Self-Acceptance’
The symptoms doctors kept dismissing
Perkins’ symptoms read like a textbook warning list: extreme fatigue, dramatic weight loss, relentless thirst, blurred vision and frequent headaches. But instead of digging deeper, the doctors she saw chalked it up to hormones, perimenopause—or her mental health.
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“I was given Prozac. I was, you know, told that, you know, well, these are just hormones. You know, you’re in perimenopausal and that’s just the way it is,” Perkins recalled. “And like, you know, maybe you should see a mental health expert and basically I would say four or five different doctors just said there’s absolutely nothing wrong with you. We’ve done all the blood work. We’ve done—there’s nothing wrong with you. And I knew how I felt and you didn’t give up.”
Between those doctors, Perkins estimates she had six or seven blood tests. But not one of them included a simple glucose check—the very test that would eventually save her life.
The routine visit that revealed the truth
The answer didn’t come from a specialist. It came during an ordinary gynecology appointment in 2005, when a nurse decided to run a quick test.
“I was going through a routine gynecology visit and the nurse was like, I’m going to do a glucose test on you,” Perkins said. “My glucose was 640 and I should have been like in a keto acidosis coma at that point.”
To put that in perspective, a normal fasting blood glucose reading is typically under 100 mg/dL. A reading of 640 is the kind of number that can trigger diabetic ketoacidosis—a medical emergency where the body, unable to use sugar for energy, starts breaking down fat so quickly the blood turns acidic. Left untreated, it can be fatal.
Perkins was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and admitted for four or five days. The diagnosis: Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.
“It was life-changing for me,” she said.
A hospital visit she’ll never forget
One moment from that hospital stay still stands out. Her longtime general practitioner—one of the doctors who’d insisted nothing was wrong—came by her room.
“My GP came to visit me at the hospital and he’s like, who would have thought, you know, there’s a glucose,” Perkins said. “And I was just, dude, you need to get out of my room right now cuz I’m going to punch you in the face.”
He was, she noted dryly, no longer her GP after that.
Her frustration is one many women will recognize. Research on gender disparities in medicine has repeatedly found that women’s pain and physical complaints are more likely to be brushed off or misdiagnosed than men’s—especially when symptoms overlap with conditions like menopause or anxiety.
“I must have had six or seven blood tests, but nobody ever tested my glucose, which is so simple,” Perkins said. “I mean, I check my glucose five times a day now.”
What she wants every woman to know
Today, 20 years after her diagnosis, Perkins manages her condition with multiple daily blood sugar checks. It’s become routine—but also a constant reminder of just how close she came to disaster.
“I was lucky that I lived through it,” she said.
Out of that ordeal has come a message she shares whenever she gets the chance, especially with other women: listen to your body, and keep pushing until someone listens, too.
“I always say to women, don’t take no for an answer,” Perkins said. “You have to become your own advocate.”
Her advice is wonderfully practical. If something feels off, say so out loud. If a doctor isn’t taking you seriously, ask for specific tests by name. If the answers don’t add up, get a second opinion—or a third. A blood glucose test, the one piece missing from her three-year mystery, is inexpensive, fast and widely available. It can be added to routine bloodwork with a simple request.
Trust yourself—it could save your life
Perkins doesn’t share her story to point fingers. She shares it so another woman might recognize her own symptoms a little sooner, ask one more question or insist on one more test.
“You have to become your own advocate,” she said—words she now lives by, five glucose checks a day.
If you’ve ever walked out of a doctor’s office feeling unheard, let Elizabeth’s story be your nudge. You know your body best. Trust it. portrait of Elizabeth Perkins smiling, paired with an inset image of a woman checking her blood glucose at home—to visually connect the celebrity story with the everyday reader takeaway.
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