Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that specifically affects pregnant women, and dealing with it can affect you and your unborn child's health. You’re dealing with more than enough bringing a new life into the world, and if you test positive for this disease through a pregnancy glucose screening, you need to know what happens next.
Let’s help shed some light on this issue by looking at gestational diabetes, how the screening works, and what happens if you test positive. If you live in the Las Vegas, Nevada area and you’re showing signs of gestational diabetes, Dr. Staci McHale and her dedicated medical staff at WHASN Sunset Valley can test you for the illness and help you with the results.
Diabetes is a problem that stems from high amounts of glucose in your blood (hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar), which you need in controlled doses to give your body energy and is regulated by a hormone called insulin under normal circumstances.
With the gestational form of diabetes, placental hormones block insulin from doing its job, leading to spikes in your blood sugar and increasing your risk of pregnancy complications. Left untreated, this can lead to a C-section if the fetus grows too large, or a form of high blood pressure during pregnancy called preeclampsia.
Your risks of developing gestational diabetes increase if you have a history of type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes in previous pregnancies, heart disease, hypertension, being overweight before getting pregnant, or prediabetes (elevated blood sugar levels below the diabetes threshold).
Your pregnancy glucose screening is generally done at 26-28 weeks and starts with a glucose challenge screening. This is the initial test to see if there is evidence of high enough blood sugar levels to perform a glucose tolerance test and further analyze if you have diabetes.
The challenge test consists of drinking a sweet liquid, then getting a blood draw about an hour later to see how you process the sugar. You only need the glucose tolerance test if your blood sugar levels after one hour are high enough to justify it.
The next step after the glucose challenge screening depends on not just whether your blood sugar is higher than it should be, but how much higher it is. If it’s below the threshold for diabetes, then dietary and lifestyle advice can be given to keep things under control, with a possible follow up test later.
If results indicate you have gestational diabetes, then we start helping with management options, which include regular blood sugar checks, dietary changes, getting down to a healthy weight, increasing moderate physical activity, and getting insulin or other diabetes medications.
This type of diabetes may go away after pregnancy, but the possible complications mean we should take the proper steps to make sure you and your baby are safe during this important period of your life. If you have concerns about this illness or other possible pregnancy problems, make an appointment with Dr. McHale and her team at WHASN Sunset Valley today.
