Glucose Tolerence Testing

[EMINEMINOM]

I have just been for a routine hospital check up - I am 23 weeks pregnant. I have been told I have to go for a Glucose Tolerence Test which will take 2 hours. They didn't explain why? Does anyone know why they carry out these tests? I didn't have this with my first pregnancy.

It is possibly because your urine sample was a bit high in sugar. I had this with dd3 but none of the others. In the end they agreed that it was because I had eaten most of a packet of custard creams that day!

They are testing for gestational diabetes. Perhaps you've had some glucose show up in your urine, perhaps it's routine in your area. If you're overweight they often recommend them too. GD can be dangerous to the baby if it's left untreated, so the test is worth having.

The test takes two hours because they need to see how well your body deals with glucose - so they will take some blood, give you a glucose drink, then two hours later take some more blood to see what the effect of the drink has been on your blood sugar levels.

The consultant just said it was because I had a big baby last time - but not why that meant I had to be tested??? I know i didn't ask the right questions at the time - hence worrying afterwards!!

I would guess they want to test you because big babies can sometimes be the result of gestational diabetes. Maybe they just want to rule it out in case you had undiagnosed GD last time.

Don't worry about it, the chances are that everything will be fine. And even if they find you have GD, many cases can be easily controlled by diet.

At my hospital they test routinely at around 21-22 weeks....agree with WWB, the odds are very much in your favour that it'll be fine!

Cool. Thanks for the reassurance - just a bit freaked out when I came out, but having done a bit of reading I understand the whole thing a bit better!!