I'm really confused about all these posts about being told to drink the stuff on the way into the office, and particularly eating breakfast.
In Australia a GTT requires you to be fasted, they take a fasting blood sugar level, then get you to drink the drink, then check your blood sugar again at 1 hour and 2 hours. This is how this test has been validated to check for GD.
If you drink the drink on the way in, you can't have a fasting BSL taken. And if you eat breakfast the test is useless. It's supposed to check your response to a specific amount of glucose at a specific time after eating it. If you've eaten beforehand there's no way to know what time you ate or how much extra glucose you've had, which makes the test useless?
They tell you that you can eat protein - eggs, for example, before the test but nothing with carbs or sugar.
When I did it, I had to drink the stuff there, but they didn't draw blood before the test. I only did the one hour test.
@zanaerob1 that's how it's given at my OB's practice. They skip the one hour test, and all women just take the three hour test right off the bat. I was also instructed not to eat for twelve hours before arriving for my test so they could get my fasting draw. I remember thinking it was torture to make a pregnant woman fast that long. That was worse than drinking the sweet drink, in my opinion.
This isn't the same as opting out of a screening test for disorders or diseases that you can do nothing about once you know. Gestational diabetes can have really shitty ramifications including increased risk of preeclampsia, early labor, fat babies (think 10-15 lbs) that requires a c section and an increased risk for your child to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Suck it up, drink the liquid, devote three hours to making sure your pregnancy and baby are as healthy as possible and move on.
ETA: even if you're "low risk" you can still develop GD, and you may not even know you have it.
I went early for my test because of family history. They gave my the orange one thats all they had and it was so gross I almost got sick lol. I had to drink it infant of them then wait an hour and they took my blood and told me they would call me if I had abnormal results which they never did so I'm assuming everything is fine! I had eggs for breakfast, my doctor told me eat protein, avoid carbs and fruits.
My midwife has the option for the glucose drink or an equivalent amount of jellybeans, which I thought was interesting as I had never heard about that before. In theory I suppose any meal eaten in quick enough succession that contains the required amount of sugar would work, but there isn't any scientific research using other food options (aside from, apparently, jellybeans).
I'm really confused about all these posts about being told to drink the stuff on the way into the office, and particularly eating breakfast.
In Australia a GTT requires you to be fasted, they take a fasting blood sugar level, then get you to drink the drink, then check your blood sugar again at 1 hour and 2 hours. This is how this test has been validated to check for GD.
If you drink the drink on the way in, you can't have a fasting BSL taken. And if you eat breakfast the test is useless. It's supposed to check your response to a specific amount of glucose at a specific time after eating it. If you've eaten beforehand there's no way to know what time you ate or how much extra glucose you've had, which makes the test useless?
I may be wrong, but this sounds exactly like the test I took 5 years ago when pregnant with DS. It was in Florida and it was the only glucose test I took. I have been equally confused by this discussion, though I am now excited that this time around, in NC, the test may only involve one blood draw (the worst part of the whole thing, IMO).
Re: Glucose Test
When I did it, I had to drink the stuff there, but they didn't draw blood before the test. I only did the one hour test.
This isn't the same as opting out of a screening test for disorders or diseases that you can do nothing about once you know. Gestational diabetes can have really shitty ramifications including increased risk of preeclampsia, early labor, fat babies (think 10-15 lbs) that requires a c section and an increased risk for your child to develop type 2 diabetes later in life. Suck it up, drink the liquid, devote three hours to making sure your pregnancy and baby are as healthy as possible and move on.
ETA: even if you're "low risk" you can still develop GD, and you may not even know you have it.