How to pass Glusoce screen

[shusshher]

My glucose screening test is coming up and I dont want to do it but am feeling pressured to do it. I am healthy weight, no family history of diabetes, not from a higher risk ethnic background. The only reason why I have to do it is is that they screen over 30s (I am 31).

I am not happy, it is in the morning and I never eat sugary food in the morning as it makes me feel unwell on an empty stomach. I dont eat sugary foods much at all as it is. I have never even drank lucozade before and dont drink rubbish sugar drinks, so am annoyed that health professionals are telling me to.

If I dont do it Im worried they wont let me have a home birth or birth centre birth and will call me high risk. At the moment everything is going well.

I am also annoyed as they didnt tell me what happened if I do fail the screening. I found out myself on the internet that it is a fast!! I have always needed to eat every few hours and do not want to deprive myself or my baby of food for several hours! I do not want to do this test and know I will even more pressured to do it!!

Is there a way to skew the screening test so that I pass? Im worried that because my body is not used to sugary foods that I am likley to (falsely) fail. I am not happy about it all and it is stressing me out which I am not happy about .

If I eat a good low sugar/high protein breakfast, go for a walk beforehand and drink less than the full amount am I more likely to pass?

I don't know about how to 'pass' but I remember being very concerned about my GTT and it turned out to be nothing like I feared. The fasting wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I didn't feel ill after the glucose drink. You'll be fine. :)

The gt test is to safeguard your baby. Quite why you think you need to try and skew the results is beyond me.

Btw you are suppose to fast from midnight. Eating will prob tip the results against you.

It's not a drugs test. You don't pass or fail! You are either within the normal range, in which case there's no problem, or you're not. And if you're not, and do in fact have gestational diabetes, wouldn't you rather know so it can be monitored and dealt with?

Don't try to skew the results, that's just head in the sand thinking.

onedietcokebreak: I would be happy to do it if I thought there was good reason to.

The only reason I have been asked to is because I fall into the age category (by a year). They are ignoring all the things that make me low risk--healthy weight, good diet/excerise. I am worried that becasue I dont usually eat high sugar food normally the test will be biased AGAINST me because of it. The instrcutions say I dont need to fast so I definitely wont be.

If you feel very ill after drinking very sugary things you can ask for it to be done over a shorter fast with a less concentrated solution.

I did mine after a 10 hour fast with a hideously high concentration of glucose and threw it up 10 minutes later. Next time I was able to eat breakfast, do a shorter fast and a lower concentration drink. As long as the lab knows what they're analysing it's okay.

Some places do it on one blood test so you could just drink the drink first thing in the morning instead of breakfast, if you can tolerate that.

What you don't want to do is eat before (that will skew your results to outside the normal range) if you're doing the double blood test version. I found that very difficult and DH had to drive me to the appointment because I wasn't allowed to eat before the first blood test!

Talk to your midwife. It is important - gestational diabetes can affect anyone with pretty serious consequences.

You don't have to have the test. Just tell them you won't be having it. It's your choice.

I think you are getting a little worked up over nothing TBH.

The GTT is for the good health of you and your baby. It is to test for Gestational Diabetes.

The 'fast' usually lasts from 10pm until after the test has been completed (usually around 10-11am the next day). I doubt whether you need to eat 'every few hours" overnight, do you? And missing breakfast for a single day, whilst a bit annoying will not damage you or your baby in anyway. The GTTs are usually arranged for first thing in the morning (mine was at 08:30) so that they are over and done with before lunchtime. It may be worth arriving early to ensure that your test is started before anyone else in clinic that morning.

Having breakfast and going for a walk before a fasting test seems a bit pointless, it will impair the results, and render the test invalid. You can drink as much water as you like during the fasting period though.

With regards the high sugar drink/your body processing it, that's the point. If your body's insulin is working properly then the sugary drink will be processed effectively, regardless of how used to (or not) you are to taking sugar.

If you really don't want to take the test, speak to your midwife/doctor and ask what the outcome would be if you refused it, based on the fact that your only 'risk' factor is your age. Ask, rather than assume whether it would prevent you from having a HB or not?

you're perfectly entitled to decline it! They can't force you to do it.

At my hospital they screen everyone over a certain BMI now whereas in my last pregnancy they only screen people if they had additional risk factors (glucose in urine, large baby, history of big babies or diabetes etc). I am over the permitted BMI but have no additional risk factors so I've declined it & my obstetrician was fine about that. There's no way I'd have any medical procedure simply because it was in a guideline somewhere (especially age related, how arbitrary can you get!). I ask what they believe my individual risk to be before consenting.

And can I just apologise for the appalling grammar in my above post. Really should remember to hit preview first when I'm this tired!

Talk to your midwives. You don't have to have a test you don't want.

And you 'pass' the test by not having gestational diabetes. They're not trying to trick you or force a diagnosis on you. They're monitoring your health and with good reason.

TBH i really think you need to get a grip of yourself.

It's only a GTT, it's not the end of the world. If it transpires that you do have GD, it is far better for both you and your baby if it's recognise and treated.

From what you've said it's likely that you don't have GD, but it's better to know then not.

Another thought. If you do have gd (which, as you say yourself is most unlikely) and you somehow manage to skew the gtt results it will be discovered at some point before your due date by which time there will be damaged caused to you and your baby and your chance of a hb will be much less than if it's found early and treated.

I think you should either have the test and do it properly or not have it.

Peanutbutterontoast: Thank you. That is a good idea. I will ask them about my individual risk factors.

Also I get very annoyed about people saying skipping breakfast is ok. I am the most hungry in the morning and hunger is what wakes me up! For for me to miss breakfast is a big problem for me and I am not happy about doing it because I happen to be 12 months older that some arbitrary age! I am very health conscious and am annoyed that they want me to drink some high suagar drink with artifical colouring. I would not feed that to my baby for breakfast so I should not be told by people who are meant to care for my health to do so.

I carry out these tests on various people for various reasons. You CANNOT 'skew' the test in your favour and in fact anything you do may well skew it against you as has already been said.

As for you thinking that because your body isn't used to sugary food/drinks that it will give you a false positive then that's wrong. If your body is working correctly and dealing with sugars and fats in the way it is meant to then you will pass regardless of whether you drink or eat certain things or not!

You don't have to have the test if you don't want it but on this one occasion I don't understand why you can't go ahead and do it.

Ok I will get a grip now, sorry, and phone up my midwives.

It's not an arbitrary age though is it. Your risk is higher over 30. Thank God we have a health care system that is trying to screen women and prevent problems for them and their babies. And thank God you can opt in or out if you're so opposed.

And they're not giving you a sugary drink to fiddle with your nutritional sensibilities or challenge your antipathy towards artificial colouring. They're offering you a screening test. You're being rather ridiculous and I mean that kindly.

Good plan shussher, the test isn't that bad btw. I very nearly cancelled mine because of morning sickness but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. If you decide to go ahead with it take someone else along with you for moral support!

Just do the test, as everyone's said. If you do have gestational diabetes, it needs to be managed now. FWIW, gestational diabetes doesn't necessarily mean no home birth. I've a friend who had it, and still had a home water birth. She had to monitor her glucose levels frequently throughout her pregnancy, adjust her diet, and she was checked more by the mws, and her mw advised her to have some formula in, in case the baby had a sugar crash after birth. So it's not the end of the world.

If I do have it, what can I eat? I will be needing to eat something as I have to travel on bus/tube to get there and literally cant function without breakfast in the morning. Usually for breakfast I have mueslie with yogurt and fruit as well as an egg on wholegrain toast.

Dont want to fail because I have eaten too much

It doesn't have to be done with lucozade. You can negotiate on that if you're worried about the artifical colourings.

You don't 'fail' because you've eaten too much. The test suggests problems with your insulin if you can't process sugar properly. It's not something you revise for.

Talk to your midwives about what they recommend.

Firstly, you don't have to have the test if you don't want to. Refusing the test should not affect whether you can book for a homebirth. (Developing active GD is very likely to affect whether you can book for a home birth. But you could pass the test now, and still go on to develop GD later in your pregnancy.)

Not having the risk factors for developing GD does not mean you won't. Any woman, no matter how lean, young, or healthy, can develop GD.

The fast will not harm you or your baby. It may be unpleasant, but it won't harm you. Neither will drinking a glass of fizzy pop.

Controlling your blood sugar is very important for the baby's health. Undetected and uncontrolled GD is dangerous. If, however, the test is positive for GT but you are totally asymptomatic because of your healthy diet and lifestyle, then, effectively, you don not have GD even though you are susceptible to it.

You need to balance out the discomfort of the test and potential restrictions resulting from unecessary labeling, with the protection that 'failing' the GTT would give you and your baby, and make your own decision.

My personal opinion is that GTT should not be done automatically. I refused it in all 3 pregnancies (though I did fasting bloods in one). This is despite me ticking most of the at-risk boxes. In all 3 pregnancies I started showing glucose in my urine from about 33-35w. At that stage I also developed nausea and raging thirst after eating sugary foods. I controlled it by diet, the midwives were happy with my control, and my babies were all born healthy. They were all heavy, but long and slim - none of them had the bulkiness of diabetes babies, nor had any blood sugar problems.

In theory you could eat anything you want, but if you don't cope well with sugar then minimising your sugar intake might be a plan to prevent you feeling nauseous. However bear in mind that it's testing your ability to metabolise a very simple sugar so if you're also asking your body to deal with a more complex carbohydrate at the same time you may end up feeling more nauseous than if you'd had something that picks your sugar levels up quickly earlier. Sorry...that's not particularly helpful!

Is it a single or double blood test?

If it's a double it really doesn't matter what you eat before because they have a baseline to work from and can accurately compare your body's ability to metabolise sugar to the specified amount you've been given.

It is the screening test. They say I can eat as normal so I can eat breakfast as the appointment is mid morning and Im allowed to eat as long as it is before I drink the lucozade.

I dont know abouth the single/double test. The instructions dont mention that.

Maybe I'll skip the fruit/mueslie and just have the egg/toast?

The instructions also say I cant drink anything after the lucozade which means I cant have water to wash it out of my wash

I think I will double check what I can eat with my midwives, hopefully they are helpful.