The Glucose Tolerance Test

I was first tested for Gestational Diabetes at 16 weeks and my results came back on the high side of normal (7.3mmol/l)

Having had it twice previously, they booked me in for a repeat GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) before my scan on Wednesday.  The GTT involves fasting overnight and going into hospital first thing to have a blood test which measures your blood sugar.  You then have to drink a sugary drink and wait around for two hours, when they take another blood sample and they see how much glucose (sugar) is still in your blood.

Now fasting overnight doesn’t sound to bad, but having had sickness pretty much all the way through my pregnancy so far, the one thing that eases it is a snack so I felt particularly awful.  The kids had me up stupidly early too and I couldn’t even have my morning cup of tea – essential for early starts.

Thankfully the Glucose drink has been modified since I last had it, and it now has an orange taste to it, which is a huge improvement and not entirely unpleasant.  You are also only allowed the tiniest amount of water to last you two hours, so as not to dilute the results!  Then you just sit and wait.

Generally you don’t hear the results unless there is a problem, so in my case I was expecting the dreaded phone call.

In it came the next morning – I had the grand result of 10.1mmol/l – I definitely have Gestational Diabetes again, and they want to see me at clinic straight away!!

 

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