This
is the type of diabetes that only emerges when you conceive or get
pregnant. Impaired glucose intolerance or if it progresses
to gestational
diabetes or
GED, is one of the most common health problems that most pregnant
women (or around 10 percent of them) encounter. This is when they
register higher levels of glucose or sugar in the blood.
Pregnant
women have a harder time responding to insulin due to hormonal
changes. For most women, the pancreas can keep up with this problem
by secreting more insulin. The problem lies when it is not enough,
resulting to GED. The good news for most women who get afflicted with
GED is that after giving birth, the condition goes away. However,
when you get this type of condition in your recent pregnancy you
might have it again in your future conceptions and even later on when
you grow older in life.
Signs
of gestational diabetes
Gestational
diabetes symptoms do
not manifest any type of symptoms, but it can be seen once a woman
undergoes glucose-screening test between the 6th to the 7th month of
pregnancy.
However
if you are a likely candidate for GED such as when there are high
levels of sugar on your urine during the initial visit to your
gynecologist then this test will be administered earlier.
Who
are at risk for GED? Here are some of them:
- Strong family history of diabetes.
- You have high blood pressure.
- You have sugar in your urine.
- You’re obese.
- You’re over 35.
- You’ve had a baby with a birth defect.
- You’ve had an unexplained stillbirth.
- You’ve had GED in a previous pregnancy.
- You’ve previously given birth to a big baby. Cut off is around 8 pounds, 13 ounces
- too much amniotic fluid
There
are risks when you develop GED. One of these is that it can result in
an increased rate of miscarriage or birth defects in early pregnancy.
Most of the time it is the fetal organs that are affected by
untreated GED are the heart and the brain.
During
the later part of the pregnancy GED can affect the growth of the
fetus and may result to a very large baby, or over-nutrition. When
this occurs it may result to a caesarean delivery.
Another
danger is when the baby suffers from hyperinsulinemia. After birth,
the baby’s blood sugar can drop to a minimal since it is no longer
getting the high sugar content is used to get from the mother.
If
you seek proper treatment, you can still have a bouncing, healthy
baby even if you have GED.
Gestational
diabetes test:
Glucose screening and glucose tolerance tests
All
pregnant women must be tested for GED. Screening for GED includes
determining risk factors, medical history and sugar levels. One of
the most common tests administered is the oral glucose tolerance
test.
Oral
Glucose Tolerance Test for GED
This
is the test normally given between 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy, but
if you are at risk then this test can be given as early as the 13th
week of pregnancy.
What
happens during this test is that the pregnant woman will be asked to
drink Glucola or a sweetened drink that has 50g of glucose content.
This will then be quickly absorbed by the body within an half to one
hour of consumption. A blood sample will be taken for testing and
will measure the glucose levels that were processed by your body
within that time.
When
your glucose level is more than 130 mg/dL then this is already
considered high, and you may have to retake the test just to make
sure. It can be done for up to four times, and if your glucose level
were abnormally high in two out of four of those tests then you are
considered to be suffering from GED.