Gestational diabetes - should I do my own blood tests

[blossomspringy]

I had GD with my last pregnancy which wasn’t picked up at the glucose test at 28 weeks. It was identified later.

I am 22 weeks pregnant now, and wondering whether I should just do my own blood tests every few days to keep an eye on things. Would that give false positives or would it be a sensible thing to do?

Was your GDM picked up with the oral glucose tolerance test or just by fingerprick monitoring? Usually it’s the former so even though it wouldn’t do you any harm to see what your sugar levels are doing it won’t necessarily diagnose GDM. Obviously if your early morning blood levels are super high then that should alert your maternity team to do another test. Have your team offered you an earlier glucose tolerance test? Every area works differently but where I am if you’ve had GDM before you get a test in the 1st and 2nd trimester in subsequent pregnancies. Might be useful to speak to your midwife about it and see if they can get advice - there’s no standardised national guidance on when to test / reference ranges for diagnosis so the advice you get on MN will not be tailored specifically to you. Hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well! GDM is a real pain but it’s all worth it for the little bubba x

22 weeks is late for not having been tested in a second pregnancy. It was 16 weeks in my area. I’d nag your midwife.

I had GD in both pregnancies. The first pregnancy is was picked up at the 24 week test. The second pregnancy, I had a test at 16 weeks which was negative. They said they'd test again at 24 weeks. I think I tested a few times before the 24 weeks and it was normal for a bit and then suddenly shot up and so I flagged to them that I thought I must have it again and they didn't bother doing the test, I just cracked on with the GD diet and regular testing. So I think the GD developed sometimes after about 20 weeks for the second pregnancy. I don't think it can do any harm to occasionally check if you feel confident you know what you're doing, but maybe not if it will make you anxious!

Sorry - I had one glucose test already (negative) and another at 28 weeks is booked. Just conscious last time it seemed to bypass the glucose test so feel I should do more to monitor, but can’t bare doing the diet for no reason!

Also to add last time I had it very badly and it was only controllable by insulin in the end. I’m not anxious about it, but I’d like to get on top of it sooner rather than later

I definitely wouldn't do the diet for no reason... So you've had a negative test already in this pregnancy? You might just not have developed GD this time (/yet!) You could just wait till the next GD test or finger prick occasionally if you want to see how your blood sugars are with your normal diet until your next test.

Agree with this! I also needed insulin and it was always my early morning pre-meal sugars that were high which are less related to meals and more to do with placental hormones. Every pregnancy is different - let’s pray you don’t have it but if you do the positive is you’ve done it before and had all the treatment before so hopefully it won’t be so overwhelming / a shock this time. All the best !