Screening for Gestational Diabetes

Topic Overview

Early detection

Experts debate whether all pregnant women need to be tested for gestational diabetes. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has found insufficient evidence to recommend screening women with no risk factors for gestational diabetes.¹ But most doctors routinely test all pregnant women who are in their care. The American Diabetes Association recommends all women who are not already diagnosed with diabetes be tested for gestational diabetes between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy using the oral glucose tolerance test.²

After delivery

Even though your gestational diabetes will probably go away after your baby is born, you are at risk for developing gestational diabetes again and for developing type 2 diabetes later in life. More than half of women who develop gestational diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes later in life.³

To make sure your blood sugar level stays within a target range, your doctor may tell you to continue checking your blood sugar levels at home for a while. You will also have a follow-up glucose tolerance test 6 weeks after your baby is born or after you stop breast-feeding your baby. If the results of this test are normal, you will still need to have a fasting blood sugar test at least every 3 years. If that test shows that your blood sugar is slightly high, you may have a condition called prediabetes. If you have prediabetes, you can help prevent type 2 diabetes by changing the way you eat, exercising regularly, and being tested for diabetes every year. For more information, see the topic Prediabetes.

Women who had gestational diabetes and use progestin-only birth control pills may have a greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Combination birth control pills that contain estrogen and progestin are not linked with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. But these pills cannot be used by women who are breast-feeding. Talk to your doctor about the best kind of contraception for you.⁴

If you want to get pregnant again, you should be tested for diabetes before you become pregnant and also early in your pregnancy.

For more information, see the topic Gestational Diabetes.

Related Information

• Early Disease Detection

References

Citations

1. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (2008). Screening for gestational diabetes mellitus. Available online: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsgdm.htm.

2. American Diabetes Association (2011). Diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Care, 34(Suppl 1): S62–S69.

3. Cunningham FG, et al. (2005). Gestational diabetes. In Williams Obstetrics, 22nd ed., pp. 1172–1187. New York: McGraw-Hill.

4. Brown FM (2005). Diabetes and pregnancy. In CR Kahn et al., eds., Joslin's Diabetes Mellitus, 14th ed., pp. 1035–1047. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

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