Failed one hour glucose test. Do I have the option to opt out of the 3 hour test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't try to "beat" the test. If you are willing to follow the dietary guidelines and do the blood sugar monitoring with the results of the 1 hour test, then I would think your OB would be willing to allow you to skip the 3 hour...but it would be on the assumption that you have GD and would follow the diet and monitoring, I would think. I had GD with both pregnancies and with my second my OB and I agreed to just move forward as if I had GD after my 1 hour test. The diet is not that hard and is actually very healthy for you and the baby. Good luck!

Yes, a friend of mine did this and she also was borderline. The 1-hour test made her so sick she decided it was easier to just decline the 3-hour and do the diet. For what it's worth, every time she home-tested her blood sugar it came back normal.

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine DESPERATELY didn't want to do the 3-hour test. She did it and was glad to find out that she didn't have GD after all. I don't even think she was "glucose intolerant" or anything. She didn't have to make any dietary changes at all. She was pretty healthy to start with but she was dreading having to be super-restrictive.

[Anonymous]

I clicked on this thread by accident, not pregnant anymore. When I was pregnant there were dozens of threads on this. Some women, me included, think that GD is a diagnosis in search of a disease. Do some reading up on it. It's WAY overdiagnosed and the one hour test is really, really bad about producing false negatives (no, failing it does not mean you have sensitivities or are intolerant - it just means you probably had more sugar in the morning than someone else).

my doctor actually told me explicitly not to have any sugary stuff (including carbs) the morning of the test or it would spike my blood sugar. So I had an egg white omelette and chased it with that nasty sugary stuff which is probably more sugar than I have ever had in my life. I tested just fine. If / when I get pregnant again, I will not do the test. Why? Becuase it's completely unnatural to load your body full of that shit and then sit around for an hour. It made me feel terrible. I think of the trouble I go through to avoid putting stuff like the test drink into my body, especially when pregnant.

If a doctor objected, I would do postprandial blood tests throughout pregnancy and provide my sugar levels, but I will not take that test again.

BTW, OP, of course you can opt out, if you want to. Your OB can drop you as a patient, but that's not that likely. Just say no and be prepared to hear the stern lecture and even do some at home tests.

[Anonymous]

But so what if GD is overdiagnosed? You don't take insulin unless your blood suger is not under control with the diet. I had a 131 on the 1 hour and I FAILED the 3 hour. I was put on the diet. It is a super healthy diet and there is no way I would have the self control to do the diet (and my diet is normally very good, but this diet is strict) if it wasn't for the test. I also was told to exercise 30 minutes per day and I did that everyday from the diagnosis to the delivery -- which I think in part helped with the quick birth.

[Anonymous]

Sort of on topic but I scored a 95 on my test and then when my DC1 was born close to 10 pounds they did a glucose test on him every 4 hours for his first 24 hours of life just to "be sure" he was okay. His poor little heel had so many poke marks in it.

Good luck everyone with your tests and your pregnancies!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But so what if GD is overdiagnosed? You don't take insulin unless your blood suger is not under control with the diet. I had a 131 on the 1 hour and I FAILED the 3 hour. I was put on the diet. It is a super healthy diet and there is no way I would have the self control to do the diet (and my diet is normally very good, but this diet is strict) if it wasn't for the test. I also was told to exercise 30 minutes per day and I did that everyday from the diagnosis to the delivery -- which I think in part helped with the quick birth.

A diagnosis of GD automatically makes you "high risk" which means a different standard of care. More monitoring near the end of the pregnancy, more concern with regard to fetal size, earlier inductions, and a higher c-section rate. The science around this diagnosis is not the greatest. It would make more sense to begin monitoring blood sugar in pregnant women from the beginning of pregnancy to find mom's that are truly diabetic. Also, the testing protocols have been criticized prettty heavily for being inconsistently applied. Some practices require carb loading three days before the 3-hour test, some do not. One issue is that many healthy moms already eat a carb light diet, usually out of habit, and then simply cannot handle the shock of the 100g glucose test because their bodies are not used to having to produce so much insulin to compensate for the sugar overload. These moms are NOT diabetic, and their diets probably wouldn't even need to be changed much if they failed the test anyway. Yet, they find themselves labeled "high risk" for no good reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sort of on topic but I scored a 95 on my test and then when my DC1 was born close to 10 pounds they did a glucose test on him every 4 hours for his first 24 hours of life just to "be sure" he was okay. His poor little heel had so many poke marks in it.

Good luck everyone with your tests and your pregnancies!

95 on a non-fasting 1 hour 50g glucose challenge is low, there is an upper and lower cut-off for GD test...not sure what the cut-off is off the top of my head. If your levels are too low it is often indicative of diabetes as well. You should have had a 3 hour test if you were at the lower bounds. And a close to ten pound baby is nothing remarkable if his sugars are stable. Just a big baby. Did they tell you why they kept testing him? Was it just because of his size?

[Anonymous]

I am poster 14:45. Just got my results from the second 1-hour test and I passed with a 110.

I have been told by many medical professionals that the 1-hour test is supposed to be taken fasting. However, I was giving a document by my OBGYN that told me to eat breakfast that morning and even gave some examples of a good breakfast. I ate a meal that was on the list, and I added 25g of sugar to the 50g that are in that drink! So that certainly pushed me over.

For the retest, I did nothing different except skipping breakfast. My diet in the days leading up to it was normal. I was not looking to cheat the test- just follow the rules of the test (which include fasting) and get a fair reading.

[sybersus]

Anonymous wrote:I am poster 14:45. Just got my results from the second 1-hour test and I passed with a 110.

I have been told by many medical professionals that the 1-hour test is supposed to be taken fasting. However, I was giving a document by my OBGYN that told me to eat breakfast that morning and even gave some examples of a good breakfast. I ate a meal that was on the list, and I added 25g of sugar to the 50g that are in that drink! So that certainly pushed me over.

For the retest, I did nothing different except skipping breakfast. My diet in the days leading up to it was normal. I was not looking to cheat the test- just follow the rules of the test (which include fasting) and get a fair reading.

Is that accurate? My midwife told me to eat as normal and then take the one-hour test. She said only the three-hour test should be done fasting. I want to make sure to get it right, as I'm supposed to go in for the test next week and want the most accurate reading possible.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

sybersus wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am poster 14:45. Just got my results from the second 1-hour test and I passed with a 110.

I have been told by many medical professionals that the 1-hour test is supposed to be taken fasting. However, I was giving a document by my OBGYN that told me to eat breakfast that morning and even gave some examples of a good breakfast. I ate a meal that was on the list, and I added 25g of sugar to the 50g that are in that drink! So that certainly pushed me over.

For the retest, I did nothing different except skipping breakfast. My diet in the days leading up to it was normal. I was not looking to cheat the test- just follow the rules of the test (which include fasting) and get a fair reading.

Is that accurate? My midwife told me to eat as normal and then take the one-hour test. She said only the three-hour test should be done fasting. I want to make sure to get it right, as I'm supposed to go in for the test next week and want the most accurate reading possible.

Thanks!

If you're with WISDOM, then your understanding is correct. Eat as normal (i.e., within the practice's general guidelines) before the one-hour and fast for the three-hour (if you have to do it).

[sybersus]

If you're with WISDOM, then your understanding is correct. Eat as normal (i.e., within the practice's general guidelines) before the one-hour and fast for the three-hour (if you have to do it).

Thanks! Exactly the info I need. I am with WISDOM.

[Anonymous]

sybersus wrote:

If you're with WISDOM, then your understanding is correct. Eat as normal (i.e., within the practice's general guidelines) before the one-hour and fast for the three-hour (if you have to do it).

Thanks! Exactly the info I need. I am with WISDOM.

Yeah, I ate egg whites ahead of time - passed. FYI, Whitney asked me to take the three hour anyway - the kid was measuring big and they didn't want to realize later that I had uncontrolled gd. I passed that one too (neither one was borderline) but I kept to the diet as well.

[Anonymous]

Poster 14:45 again. My family is full of physicians, so the information that I am getting is from them.

The 1-hour test is commonly given to non-pregnant people, and when it is they are always told to fast (which means no breakfast). It is a common test in diagnosing and monitoring diabetes for the general population. The test is not specific to OBGYN practices and prenatal care.

For some reason, OBGYN practices commonly tell people that they can eat breakfast, but they do not raise the cut off to allow for this extra meal- the cut off is still 130 for both pregnant and non-pregnant alike.

The drink has 50g of sugar in it. Whatever you eat in the morning adds to this (and you need to be aware of both sugars and carbs because they both have an effect). So, if you eat a cup of cereal with milk, you have added 25-30g of sugar and a bunch of carbs to your body that the test will detect. If your score was going to be super low, then you could still fine, but if your score was going to be closer to borderline, this WILL push you over.

If you are going to eat, plain eggs are about the only thing that may not have much of an effect. All other American breakfast food certainly will. My practice suggested that I eat a bagel- could you imagine? That would certainly add to my score.

2-5% of all pregnant women are gestational diabetics. However, 23% of pregnant women fail the 1-hour glucose test. That is a lot of false positives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sort of on topic but I scored a 95 on my test and then when my DC1 was born close to 10 pounds they did a glucose test on him every 4 hours for his first 24 hours of life just to "be sure" he was okay. His poor little heel had so many poke marks in it.

Good luck everyone with your tests and your pregnancies!

95 on a non-fasting 1 hour 50g glucose challenge is low, there is an upper and lower cut-off for GD test...not sure what the cut-off is off the top of my head. If your levels are too low it is often indicative of diabetes as well. You should have had a 3 hour test if you were at the lower bounds. And a close to ten pound baby is nothing remarkable if his sugars are stable. Just a big baby. Did they tell you why they kept testing him? Was it just because of his size?

Hi. My sugars and the baby's sugars were perfectly fine but yes, Sibley insisted on testing him because of his size. He was a-ok but I guess it was just precautionary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am poster 14:45. Just got my results from the second 1-hour test and I passed with a 110.

I have been told by many medical professionals that the 1-hour test is supposed to be taken fasting. However, I was giving a document by my OBGYN that told me to eat breakfast that morning and even gave some examples of a good breakfast. I ate a meal that was on the list, and I added 25g of sugar to the 50g that are in that drink! So that certainly pushed me over.

For the retest, I did nothing different except skipping breakfast. My diet in the days leading up to it was normal. I was not looking to cheat the test- just follow the rules of the test (which include fasting) and get a fair reading.

Uh oh - this is going to be me. Thanks for posting this... I was wondering about the 'eat a normal breakfast and anything you like before the test', but then thought alright I will... and I ate a new cereal that seemed a bit sugary, then had the drink.... went for the test... and just saw that the cereal had 34 g carbs per serving, and I had a good serving at least. Oh no! I will probably fail that test!? I mean is it even possible to pass it with that many carbs on board? In that case, I should ask for a repeat 1 hr right??