Gestational diabetes is a pregnancy complication that could lead to low blood sugar and jaundice in the baby as well as delivery complications. Gestational diabetes symptoms are important to know about and detect because this condition could mean that a woman is more likely to develop diabetes later in her life.
The problem is that gestational diabetes symptoms can be difficult to detect or may be absent altogether. For this reason it is necessary to know about the risk factors that could make certain women more prone to diabetes in pregnancy:
Gestational diabetes risk factors
If you have had any abnormal blood sugar tests, if you have had impaired fasting glycemia or impaired glucose tolerance or a diagnosis of pre diabetes, you are at higher risk.
If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes with close relative having been diagnosed with the disease you are at higher risk.
If you have had a previous pregnancy with diabetes or if the baby you delivered previously was large (over 4.5 kg), or had certain other pregnancy complications you are more likely to experience gestational diabetes symptoms.
Women over the age of 35 and overweight or obese women are also more at risk of developing gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes symptoms
Very often women may experience or exhibit no symptoms of gestational diabetes. It may only be through prenatal checks and tests that the condition reveals itself. It is usually through the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) that women typically undergo between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy that will detect the condition.
Gestational diabetes symptoms are much the same as other forms of diabetes. Increased thirst and increased hunger are common symptoms. Women find that they have to go to the bathroom more frequently and pass more urine than they normally would.
Tiredness or low energy levels are another common symptom that the body is not able to convert sugar into energy, which is a characteristic of diabetes.
Sometimes blurred vision may be a problem as well, since blood sugar imbalances tend to impact the eyes directly.
Nausea and vomiting could also be among the gestational diabetes symptoms. However these could be easy to miss because women may think this to be an ordinary symptom of pregnancy itself. Some women with gestational diabetes also find that they are more prone to yeast infections or bladder infections.
