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 am diabetic (full-time, not gestational).

Do the test, follow the instructions. Diabetes is serious. If it is not managed your baby could die. Sorry to be blunt, but you need to take this seriously. It is only one day.

Follow the instructions. The chances are you will be fine. But why take a chance?

You could ask about having a carb free meal, such as an omelette or ham salad if you are asked to do any tests that involve skipping meals and are worried about being hungry.

GD is very dangerous for your baby if not controlled. I think you are being a bit silly about this tbh. (as someone who was unexpectedly diagnosed with GD)

You simply fast from 10pm or midnight until after the test. If you eat during this period it will make your blood sugar higher, which will mean you are more likely to be diagnosed as they will think that is your fasting result.

Drinking a sugary drink once will not harm your baby, even if you do have GD. If you are diagnosed, they will first try to control it with diet and check yoru own blood glucose levels. You will not be expected to starve yourself, in fact, that's bad if you do have GD. You will simply be asked to eat a sensible, healthy diet involving sensible portions of complex carbs at each meal, with some protein and veg. Also, to cut out refined carbs and obviously sugary foods like cake, sweets etc. You will need to eat regular healthy meals and snacks.

It's not an exam that you can pass or fail. It is a medical test designed to pick up a potentially very serious disease. If you don';t have the disease, then the test will be fine.

If you do have the disease, then you really should want to know about it for the health of you and your baby.

Good idea re: the no carbs breakfast from fallingandlaughing.

BTW fallingandlaughing - you gave me some great advice a few weeks ago when I was diagnosed with T1 diabetes - just wanted to say thank you, and say that I finally saw the dietitian last week who gave me basic info on carb-counting, I already feel much better/in control after only a few days!

Oh no problem Miss Kitty. Hope things are going OK for you.

When they say that you can't drink anything after the test, that should only refer to anything other than water! When we do the tests in clinic our patients, in the two hours while waiting to take the second blood test, they are able to drink water.

Hi Shusshher, I'm totally with you on this, I eat all the time at the moment and would NEVER drink anything sugary or artificial like Lucozade during pregnancy.

On the other hand, if I have GD I'd rather know as it can cause all sorts of problems with the baby's health, including shoulder dystocia during the birth which is quite common in GD and can leave the child with a paralysed hand for life, which one of my friends suffers from. Shoulder dystocia happens in every 33rd birth for diabetics compared with every 200th birth for non-diabetics.

As SnapFrakkleAndPop says, you don't have to use Lucozade. You can buy pure glucose powder from a chemist shop and dissolve the appropriate weight of the powder in a glass of water instead. Just have a word with your midwife in advance to let her know you'll be doing this and find out what the weight of glucose is you'll need to bring for each part of the test.

At the end of the day, it's up to you, and you don't have to have the test, but you are already taking so much care to protect your baby with your healthy lifestyle and diet and it would be a shame to take the risk of having gestational diabetes which ends up not being picked up and treated.

Reading this thread shows that the process clearly varies between hospitals.
For mine I had to fast from 10pm the night before. My appointment was about 9am I think. I had a finger prick blood test, then I was given made-up glucose powder to drink (not Lucozade) - it was completely tasteless. I was told I couldn't drink water until I returned 2 hours later. I went home! (I live very close). When I returned I had a proper blood test instead of the finger prick, but they were using it to test for iron etc as well.

I was someone who would pop wine gums constantly to stave off morning sickness but I still coped. And to be honest it wasn't difficult.

It was fine, I had wound myself up in knots about it but it was fine.

Speaking as a type one diabetic (which is obviously a little different to GD) I would suck it up and have the test. The perceived unpleasantness of the test and the potential fast is small in comparison to the risks involved for you and developing baby if diabetes is left uncontrolled.

The fact that you have a healthy diet normally and a low sugar intake will have no bearing on the results of the test. The test is looking to see how your body processes all carbs not just sugars, and pretty much everything we eat contains some carbs even vegetables and wholemeal bread. These are just starch based carbs not refined sugars and although they are broken down differently and more slowly as starch than sugar they will still cause a spike in your blood glucose if your body is a) not producing insulin properly or b) if you have developed insulin resistance which is caused by the oestrogen released during pregnancy.

However you do have a choice whether you have the test or not but for your own peace of mind I would have it. At the risk of sounding melodramatic I wouldn't want to think that I had done any harm to my baby when a simple test could have allowed me to get the appropriate help where necessary.

I don't have any of the risk factors. I have GD. The consequences of not picking up can (not will) be quite serious for your baby.

Most of the risks occur around full gestation and birth and, for the baby, immediately after the birth when it can have a hypo which can be dangerous for it. it is perfectly possible to be almost symptomless in pregnancy and still have GD, which is why testing is important.

There's a lot of info on the consequences of GD on the support thread here.

It's really not that bad, you just fast between 10pm and then have a small sugary drink at about 7am and then a blood test around 9am. In some places you have a blood test before and after the sugary drink.

This is one of the strangest threads I've ever read on here. Are you seriously worried about the effect of lucozade on your baby, but not about the potentially life-threatening effects of undiagnosed gestational diabetes? I can't say the test sounds fun and like you I would never normally drink a sugary drink, I've even switched to V8 for having spatone in instead of fruit juice! But a few hours very mild discomfort to protect your baby's health is really, really worth it.

I am both over 30 and have a high BMI but where I live now you only do a GTT if you have had sugar in your urine at 2 or more routine antenatal apts so I can see why the OP is annoyed about being sent for one id it is in fact based purely on being just over 30 and no other risk factors!

When I lived in the UK during my first pregnancy I was sent for one because of my BMI but results came back well within the normal range, I am now 8 months preg with my 3rd and have unfortunately only got older and slightly fatter but have not been refereed for the GTT in this preg or the last, even though docs here love to refer for all sorts of extra tests and scans due to the way they are paid here!

When I did have the GTT in the UK my biggest complaint was that it took up an entire, long, morning of mostly waiting around in a very busy hospital with uncomfortable chairs in the waiting area! But it was 5.5 years ago now and I cannot remember anything more helpful about it.

I agree if you do take the test you may as well do it properly, but if you are being refereed based only on being aged 31 and nothing else at all puts you in a higher risk group, as well as the fact you don't eat sugary foods much anyway, I would say turning it down is not at all irresponsible.

Utterly surreal, as others have said. I have had both my babies over 30. I didn't have the test first time, I did second time, because in between my father had been diagnosed as type 2. He has a lot of lifestyle factors, I don't, but it would never have occurred to me to try to mask a potentially life threatening condition. Most peculiar. And it wasn't lucozade, it was about 20ml of glucose syrup.

If you really don't want theGTT then ask your midwife about getting you a blood monitor to finger prick test to get a better idea if you have sugar problems or not. I have full blown GD and on insulin etc and glad I know about it as it's causing one of the babies problems with excess fluid.