How do practitioners test for gestational diabetes?
Testing for GD is a two-stage process. The first step is a screening test, which is generally administered to all pregnant women. The screening test is usually given somewhere between week 24 and 28. For this test, you may be asked to drink a glucose solution and have a blood sample drawn an hour later, or you may simply be asked to give a blood sample. If your blood glucose value exceeds a threshold amount, you will be asked to return for an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT). The various protocols disagree on the amount of glucose and the threshold value (29). For the OGTT, you will be asked to come in after fasting overnight. Blood will be drawn, you will be given a glucose solution to drink, and blood will be drawn one, two and three hours later. The glucose solution may make you nauseous. As with the screening test, the recommended amount of glucose and the diagnostic thresholds vary from protocol to protocol (29). Some guidelines only stipulate a fasting glucose and a two hour va
