Anyone with GD?

[amjon]

I think I may already have GD and I'm only 6 weeks. My blood sugar was 157 the other day, so way too high. The OB wasn't concerned at all, but I've read high BS can cause major birth defects, so I'm very concerned. Has anyone had diabetes or GD in the first tri?

[angieb]

GD is caused by the placenta. At 6 weeks, the placenta is only just beginning to form. So if you have BS issues, it's probably type 2, not GD. That being said, 156 isn't too horrible if you had eaten within an hour or less.

[JB]

Do you have any risk factors for increased chance of GD (does anybody in your family have diabetes, are you overweight, etc.)? If you do, you should be able to get an early screening, although as angieb points out if you have diabetes this early in your pregnancy it is probably Type 2 (which usually doesn't start until 24-28 weeks). I'd also second her point that what you ate before your blood sugar was tested and when you ate it would affect your test results.

I'm overweight so they had me take the 1-hr screen at 24 weeks. It was negative, but when I took it again at 28 weeks it was positive. After that I just barely failed two of the four blood draws in the 3-hr test, so I am diagnosed as having gestational diabetes but they didn't think it is very severe. So far I have been able to control it with diet and monitoring.

[amjon]

I've had hypogylcemia for years and both grandmothers are diabetic, so I definitely have risk factors. I really still think it's pregnancy related as it started with my last pregnancy which was less that 4 months before this one. I've read in rare cases the hormones can cause first trimester GD. I'm really scared that it could cause birth defects and the doctor doesn't seem concerned about it at all. There are really no other doctors I can go to here. I do have a MFM appointment on the 16th, so I can ask him about it then. For now, I guess I'll really try to keep carbs/ sweets down.

[angieb]

I think more likely is that your first pregnancy may have unmasked blood sugar problems (in the same way that first pregnancies can unmask/trigger stuff like chronic hypertension), if there really is an issue, rather than you having gestational diabetes this early. (Similar to not being able to have pre-eclampsia at 6 weeks, if someone has blood pressure problems at 6 weeks, it's most like chronic hypertension.)

I would certainly ask your MFM about doing a 1 hour glucose tolerance test. Since I had GD in my previous test, my MFM ordered one at 6 weeks this pregnancy- but they were testing to make sure I didn't have type 2 since I hadn't been tested in between pregnancies, not gestational diabetes, they'll test for that again later.

[JB]

The dietician in the diabetes clinic who met with me after I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes told me that women who get gestational diabetes are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and that sometimes their diabetes never goes away after delivery and simply becomes type 2. So it is definitely possible that you have type 2 diabetes that should be managed.

I'm surprised with your health and family history that your doctor hasn't requested an early diabetes screen. You should definitely ask for one.

[amjon]

The OB said he wanted to do it at 12 weeks for some reason. I will definitely ask them to do it earlier and try to eat only low GI foods for now. I'm meeting with another MFM on the 16th, so I'll ask him about the BS issues. When I saw the last one I wasn't pregnant and my BS was still normal, so we didn't discuss that. I really think it's just early GD as my reading right before pregnancy was higher than normal for me, but still normal. Hopefully it will improve again after this pregnancy.