this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2026
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Unfortunately there are very few actual CGM brands available. There are a bunch of different CGMs, but most of them are just relabels of other units, almost all of which are made by either Dexcom or Abbott. Even more unfortunately in my experience they wildly exaggerate the accuracy and lifetime of the units. Most claim an accuracy of +/- 20% which is pathetic for 14 days, but you're lucky if it maintains even that terrible level of accuracy for half that time.
In my case I'm horrendously allergic to the adhesive that Dexcom uses on their units, so I can't even use half the CGMs on the market, and I gave up on Abbott after their units started to struggle to even make it 48 hours without being off by more than 50 mg/dl.
I feel like I’m a Stelo unicorn. I’ve had good luck, and when I check with a finger prick it’s always close. I don’t use insulin. So it’s fine for my needs.
I suspect my body/arm/skin is ideal for the technique these use. And I think a large subset of people never have as good of luck. If you look on Amazon, you see the CGMs always have 2.5-3 stars. And in a broken place like Amazon where reviews are somehow always 4-4.5, this really shows how much you are rolling the dice with at least the OTC ones. But like I said, it’s been working for my needs.
It’s clear this market is proven and is valid. I hope breakthroughs in tech can happen to improve reliability, and longevity. If someone like Apple figures out how to do it with a watch style device, it’ll be really fantastic.
I used one for a while. It kept waking me up saying I was dying from low blood sugar at 2.4mmol (43mg/dl). Turns out if you sleep on it, it stops working, but the location means sleeping on my left side or my back causes it to fail.
Then, during the day, it says I'm at 9mmol (162mg/dl), but when I finger prick test to confirm it's only 7.2mmol (130mg/dl).
I just took it out after 6 days because it was completely inaccurate in my case. Maybe it's just incompatible with my biology or something, either way it was a waste of money for me. Makes me wonder if it has a similar problem as those finger pulse monitors, where it only works for certain skin types?
Pressure lows are a known thing. I recently learned there is a new type of device that lasts 365 days, but it involves surgically inserting the sensor under the skin and removing it at the end. The sensor is then powered by a rechargeable external device. They claim this technique is basically immune to compression lows.
But this isn’t available over the counter, and requires specific a diagnosis to qualify.