Symptoms and Treatment of Gestational Diabetes
Saturday, September 13th, 2008Gestational diabetes is a condition wherein a pregnant woman experiences a rise in her blood sugar levels during pregnancy. The pregnant women who experience gestational diabetes are those who have had no diabetes before it. Many doctors believe that this form of diabetes is caused or triggered by the imbalanced hormones in a pregnant woman’s body caused by pregnancy.
In some cases, women who are prone to diabetes might develop diabetes during pregnancy because of this susceptibility. There are several factors to this and one is genetic, the diet and other environmental factors. The risk of giving birth while undergoing this condition is a bit high since there are complications from diabetes which can be compounded by pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes is what doctor’s call a condition where the individual has glucose intolerance during pregnancy. This disease or condition usually resolves itself after the woman has given birth and her hormones go back to normal.
Symptoms Of Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is a pregnant women only type of diabetes. Since it occurs in pregnant women only, chances are the symptoms can be contributed to the pregnancy instead of the diabetes. This is the reason why most doctors order a test for the pregnant mother when she is around her fourth or fifth month of pregnancy. There are three ways to test a pregnant woman if she has gestational diabetes. It is sometime done with a blood test, an oral glucose tolerance test or a screening glucose challenge test.
There are some symptoms of gestational diabetes which can be attributed to it. These symptoms are being thirsty a lot, fatigue or tiredness, nausea, increased urination, blurred vision and recurrent yeast infections. These symptoms are sometime mistaken as symptoms of pregnancy which is why it is important to have tests done before it is too late.
Treating Gestational Diabetes
Most cases of gestational diabetes can be controlled or treated with strict diet and exercise. The condition usually clears up within a few months of the mother giving birth to the child. In some cases, doctors will recommend the pregnant woman to have insulin injections to help maintain and balance her gestational diabetes.
Unlike the other types of diabetes, this one is basically caused by the pregnancy so it can usually be treated by the end of the pregnancy. Since the woman’s hormones usually go back to normal a few weeks after she gives birth, you can hope that the diabetes goes away with it, too.