Pre-existing diabetes & Genetic Screenings

meganjohnson06 · February 2013

I have a question for the women out there who had diabetes before getting pregnant. Did you do the genetic screenings/blood tests? I've been reading that a diabetic's "normal" ranges are different than someone without diabetes and I'm afraid to do the tests and get a false positive. Thanks!

=Lee=B · February 2013

I've had Type 1 for 26 plus years. I did the tests for Down Syndrome (and other things) that involved 2 blood tests and an ultrasound for measurements.

My high-risk mentioned nothing about my Diabetes having different ranges for the results. I would run that by your specialist and not go just by info online. Regrardless if having diabetes means we have a different range I would think they all know hte proper range for us and give our results based on that range...but again I've heard nothing about this from my team and they are pretty thorough!

I wouldn't let your diabetes be the deciding factor as to whether or not you have the testing done.

JennKosh · February 2013

I am also a type 1 diabetic, 34 years old, and the only extra test I did was the NT (nuchal translucency) test at 13 weeks. The positive outcome of that was we were also able to find out the baby's sex at that time! We declined the rest of the genetic testing. I also would go with what your OB says and not worry about diabetic's "normal" ranges being any different and decide based on what you and your husband want to do regarding the genetic screenings rather than worrying about false positives.

tig594 · February 2013

My specialists also said nothing about diabetics having different "normal" ranges. I did the blood tests witht he ultrasound but refused everything else, especially the amnio as I have a history of miscarriage.

jasonsgirl78 · February 2013

I have type 2 diabetes for 7 years now. I didn't do any of the blood tests with my son (now 22months) because on the baby girl we lost, her risk for Downs came back as 1:15 which she turned out to be chromosomally healthy & the issues she did have were not related to my diabetes at all. I didn't want to do the blood tests and worry myself even more with my son's pregnancy and also with this one. Also my OB has me do extra ultrasounds because of the diabetes (which your OB may do with you as well) and he felt they would be able to catch most issues on those frequent ultrasounds.

laurncui812.0 · February 2013

I did not do any genetic testing. I figure I will keep the baby either way and the extra stress if something came back bad would only make things worse.