Every woman wants her pregnancy to go smoothly, but health issues can crop up during this time — and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is one of the more common, and growing, concerns.
To paint a more detailed picture, the incidence of GDM in the United States is on the rise. It affected 6% of pregnancies in 2016 and this number jumped to 8.3% of pregnancies in just five years.
Because November is National Diabetes Month, Dr. Jose F. De Leon and the team at Kinwest OBGYN believe it’s an excellent occasion to focus on gestational diabetes in this month’s blog post. Here’s what we want you to know about this common pregnancy complication.
Research is ongoing, but gestational diabetes occurs when hormones from the placenta interfere with another hormone — insulin.
Under normal circumstances, your pancreas produces insulin to regulate the levels of glucose in your blood by delivering it to your cells. With GDM, you develop a resistance to insulin, which allows glucose to build up in your blood, often to dangerously high levels.
In most cases, GDM tends to develop in the second trimester — usually around the 20- to 24-week mark.
While the onset of GDM isn’t great news, the late arrival does mean that the issue doesn’t usually interfere with fetal development. GDM is more of a potential issue for the mother’s health and the delivery.
It’s important to note that GDM can develop in any woman, but some may be more at risk due to certain factors, including:
To expand on this last point, rates of GDM in pregnant women 40 years or older are nearly six times higher than for women under age 20.
During routine pregnancy care at Kinwest OBGYN, we test for gestational diabetes. This prenatal screening is important because GDM doesn’t usually lead to any symptoms in its early stages.
If you’ve developed gestational diabetes, we want you to know that plenty of women get through their pregnancies perfectly well, so long as they manage the condition vigilantly.
This management often includes:
It’s important that you check each of these boxes, especially if you don’t want to carry the condition forward. Unfortunately, half of women with gestational diabetes go on to develop type 2 diabetes after their pregnancy. You can go a long way toward preventing this from happening by following our management plan and doing your part with diet and exercise.
Of course, we’re here to help you every step of the way. If you have more questions about gestational diabetes, please don’t hesitate to contact Kinwest OBGYN in Dallas or Irving, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
