I didn’t quite get why Abbott, manufacturer of the Freestyle CGM, was trying to get approval from the FDA for its receiver. But now I do. Medicare would not cover the CGM without an accompanying receiver.
The receiver was approved in April, and Medicare has just agreed to cover the cost of Libre, I believe you can get either the Libre 2 or 3. I’m not going to compare them, but diaTribe did. But I have researched comparisons between Libre 3 and Dexcom’s G7, since I’m considering switching.
If you read my post recently, you know G7 and I got off to a bumpy start. It’s still not great, but maybe better. I still get too many ‘lost signal’ windows, including always when I first wake up and retrieve my phone from where I store it overnight. Yes, that’s another story, but mainly I don’t want to wake up throughout the night to alerts from compression lows.
I do appreciate the 12 hour window Dexcom offers at the end of a session so I can pop a new one on and have it start running in the background so by time I switch my session over to the new sensor, I get more like 12 wonky hours on it rather than 24.
In a nutshell these two devices today are not all that different. Both the Dexcom G7 and Libre 3 are small, similarly accurate, insert similarly, have customizable alerts, and while Abbott had to get a receiver approved, you can use both on your phone with their apps.
The major differences are Libre 3 is 14 day wear, Dexcom 10 and a half, Libre 3 has 33 feet of range, Dexcom 20, Libre 3 is cheaper, but Dexcom has more functionality on its app and is actively working toward being operational with Omnipod and Tandem pumps. Truthfully, I think it’s more a matter of personal choice and what features are important to you. And, maybe I buried the lead but you can trial the Libre. See more here.
Here are two comparison reviews. The first from DiabetesDaily and the video from TypeOneTalks:
Dexcom G7 or FreeStyle Libre 3? We Tried Them Both!
Diabetes Stories 
All in all, my Libre is a love hate relationship. I LOVE the customer service, but the quality of the product isn’t all that grand. I like having a reader, though. My cell phone isn’t fancy enough to run any of the CGMs out there. Which is perfectly ridiculous, but whatever. This last month my insurance helped me get, I think, 6 of these things. 3 failed. Two of them were back to back failures. BUT, as mentioned, customer service is great and I just got two replacements. I will need to contact them about the third one…I use Skintac wipes to help adhere the gadgets, so having two back to back failures was a bit painful. I use desolv it to help remove the things, but it was still pretty sore. All in all, they are a good, inexpensive tool. I still do blood tests, sometimes the darn things are wildly inaccurate (the other day the gadget recording was 50 off of the blood test). Other times it seems ok. My endo results aren’t bad, so I guess that is the most important thing. Good luck and keep us posted!
So, kris, when you say 3 failed, how do you mean? They just stopped working or something else? Have you ever used Dexcom CGM. I’m wondering how that might be for you, although Libre is cheaper if you don’t have insurance that covers these devices
Getting to this late, but I’m here now! The first one worked for a several hours and stopped. The second one worked only a few hours and stopped. The third one barely three. When being scanned, they all gave the information about vitamin c, said to wait an hour, and were ok. Then, two of them read I needed to wait 10 min..and then one said several hours and then those two said to replace the sensor. I have not tried Dexcom, this is ok. It’s not stellar, but it’s a good tool. It’s not a glucose testing replacement all the time. I do have insurance, for now. I just didn’t want more gadgets! What does one do with diabetes gadgets? The surplus of blood testing devices, syringes I’ll never use because I much prefer teeny tiny needles instead of ones from the 90s, and I’ve even one expired Libre reader! I’m loath to just toss things…
😂