Why IS diabetes exploding in 20-something women? Instagram, booze and fertility: Top experts pose fascinating explanations

Glance at social media and the slew of twentysomething women in lycra leggings gives the impression of an ultra-health conscious generation. Yet new, alarming figures published this week reveal a very different story. Type 2 diabetes - the condition driven by obesity - has soared by 70 per cent in British women aged 20-29 over the last decade, according to a shock study by experts from Imperial College London. The rise was much less dramatic among men of all age groups. In those over 60, diagnoses are in fact declining.Also worrying was the increase in waistlines among young women who were seen to be far heavier when first diagnosed, compared to men. 'There's been a dramatic change over the course of a few decades and it's accelerated recently,' says Roy Taylor, emeritus professor of medicine and metabolism at the University of Newcastle who has pioneered research into type 2 diabetes. The potentially deadly condition is triggered by lifestyle factors such as an unhealthy diet, which can hamper the production of insulin in the body, causing sugar to build up in the blood. Thirty per cent of UK adults are obese, 90 per cent of whom will go on to develop type 2 diabetes.Some commentators have put the meteoric rise down to the increased consumption of ultraprocessed food (UPF) among youngsters. But studies consistently show that men are bigger UPF lovers than women.So what's going on? Here, some of the UK's top diabetes specialists reveal the surprising factors fuelling the gender difference. Diagnoses of type 2 diabetes have surged 70 per cent in 20-something women, data showsOne suspicion is that societal changes in gender norms mean more women may be partaking in calorific acitivites; e.g drinking large amounts of alcohol.In the 90s, fewer women would engage in lone drinking, or big binge sessions, says Prof Taylor.'It wasn't that common to consume rounds of shots,' he adds. 'Think of the calorie intake that this entails.'The data would suggest this to be true. The number of women drinking heavily has been steadily rising over the last decade.While the number of UK men reporting binge drinking has remained largely similar since 2016, the number of women doing so has seen a marked increase, according to a World Health Organisation report published in 2024.In 2016, 13.8 per cent of women in the general population reported heavy episodic drinking – and this had risen to 21.7 per cent by 2019. Meanwhile, other data shows British women are the biggest binge drinkers in the developed world, with one in four admitting they binge drink at least once a month.Some 26 per cent found themselves consuming six or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion, according to a 2023 survey.What's more, between 2016 and 2021, the number of women dying from alcohol increased by 37 per cent, as per Government figures.Another contributor is social media, experts say. While the endless stream of perfect abs on Instagram has encouraged young women to diet, this doesn't necessarily mean they're getting thinner.'Girls and women feel more pressurised by diet culture,' says Dr Saira Hameed, consultant endocrinologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and author of SIGNALS: the Inside Story of Our Hormones.This, she adds, often triggers yo-yo dieting, which can leave us hungrier and with a slowed metabolic rate, ultimately leading to greater weight gain once the diet ends.All of that scrolling - over super-slim influencers and beyond - isn’t helping womens' waistlines either. Naveed Sattar, professor of cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, points out that more time spent on our phones means 'less time active, [and] more disruption with sleep at night, which we know is linked to type 2 diabetes.'Women spend more time on social media than men, logging about 17 to 30 minutes more per day on average, according to polls. The fact that women endure pregnancy also contributes to their increased risk of obesity and its related diseases, experts say.Some studies suggest that around one in five pregnant women have gestational diabetes - when the excess weight carried makes blood sugars go awry and present as diabetic.The condition can be serious for both mother and baby, raising the risk of miscarriage, high blood pressure or blood clots. Women who are overweight to begin with are more likely to be 'tipped' into gestational diabetes, Dr Shivani Misra, diabetes consultant and one of the authors of the Imperial paper, told BBC Women's Hour.She added that, while some find their blood sugars return to normal after pregnancy, others go on to develop type 2 diabetes. Even after the birth, there may be knock-on effects for the next generation, says Dr Hameed, due to what is known as foetal programming, or how health is impacted during our time in the womb. 'As more women go through pregnancy at a higher body weight and with health conditions such as diabetes, it’s possible that we are now seeing the effects on the next generation.'Experts are particularly concerned about young patients, as early onset disease is often more aggressive. According to 2023 research published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, someone diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 30 could see their life expectancy drop by as much as 14 years, compared to diagnosis at 70 leading to the loss of a year or two.Diagnosis at a younger age means being on medication (potentially multiple) for longer, with the potential side effects that brings. The experts agree that overhauling our lifestyles is crucial for driving down rates of type 2 diabetes in young women, but our so-called 'obesogenic environment' must also be transformed. 'If we can change the environment to make it much easier to lead healthy lifestyles, more people able to do so without much conscious effort,' says Prof Sattar. 'That's the future target.'