Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

Before thinking about gestational diabetes symptoms you should know what the condition really refers to.

Just like any other kind of diabetes, it affects the way your cells are able to use sugar that is considered to be the main source of energy. As a result you will have high blood sugar levels that could affect the baby.

Symptoms of gestational diabetes

One of the most important facts that you have to remember regarding the condition is that it doesn’t have any noticeable symptoms or signs. Nonetheless in rare cases it could lead to excessive thirst or frequent urination.

When to ask for help?

You don’t need to experience the symptoms of gestational diabetes to get checked out. The best thing you could do is to have a test before you even get pregnant. This way you will know your chances of developing the condition and you should take this into consideration when thinking about your wellness plan.

When you get pregnant you will find out more about the gestational diabetes symptoms because your doctor will test for the condition as a routine test. In case you will get affected by the condition you will be more closely monitored by your doctor. Usually the condition develops during the third trimester.

If this is the case regarding the symptoms of gestational diabetes, your doctor will consider your pregnancy one of high risk, and so you will be more closely monitored. It is possible that your doctor will suggest you to see some other doctors who specialize in problems of this kind.

In case you are faced with gestational diabetes symptoms you may have to see an endocrinologist, a diabetes educator or a dietician. These people will help you to make sure that your blood sugar level is under control during your pregnancy. After you give birth you will also have some tests.

Those women who have been affected by the symptoms of gestational diabetes have to make sure that their blood sugar level gets back to normal with the help of a blood sugar meter by Dexcom after they give birth. You will have a test right after childbirth and another one six weeks later. In case you are affected by the condition, you should get checked regularly.

Even though you may not have the gestational diabetes symptoms anymore, it is still better to have regular tests. The frequency of these tests depends on the results that you have. You should know that in case you had gestational diabetes, you have higher chances of being affected by diabetes at a later time.

Causes

The truth about the symptoms of gestational diabetes is that the professionals still don’t know why they appear. In order to understand the process you should know how the body processes sugar in normal conditions. After you eat food the body produces sugar of it that enter the blood stream.

In order to avoid the gestational diabetes symptoms, the body produces insulin. This is the substance that makes sugar get into your cells to produce energy. During pregnancy the placenta releases different kinds of pregnancy hormones that have an effect on insulin, thus the blood sugar level rises.

Regarding the symptoms of gestational diabetes it is true that there should be a slight rise in your blood sugar level after you eat. As the pregnancy progresses, the placenta is releasing more hormones that stop the effects of insulin and so the blood sugar level rises even more, possibly affecting the baby.

In the majority of the cases the gestational diabetes symptoms appear during the last pregnancy stages. Rarely do they appear before the 20^th week of pregnancy and usually it lasts longer before they appear.