Gestational Diabetes Testing

Many people, including seniors, members of specific ethnic groups, pregnant women, or people with weight issues are considered good candidates for gestational diabetes testing. Typically using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in a doctor’s office, gestational diabetes testing is an important first step toward better understanding and treating your specific condition. Modern advancements in diagnostics also make performing preliminary gestational diabetes testing within the privacy of your own home a real possibility for many people. If performed at home, you will perform your gestational diabetes testing by using a small blood or urine sample to help determine the amount of glucose present in your system. Done with the guidance and evaluation of a trained medical professional, gestational diabetes testing at home can help to reduce your stress and anxiety levels—two factors that can adversely affect the results of any reading. It is important to know, that even though they are becoming more and more accurate, at-home gestational diabetes testing methods should never be used as the sole factor to determine the reach and extent of your condition. Your doctor will ask for more than one test to establish and diagnose your situation, and at-home gestational diabetes testing might be just one method chosen to help monitor where your health is heading. Certainly not the last word in what you may or may not be facing with your health and glucose tolerances, proper gestational diabetes testing monitored by a trained medical professional will help you to better manage and understand the far-reaching possibilities ahead.

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Gestational Diabetes Test - Women are given a gestational diabetes test to discover if they are at higher risk for gestational diabetes. An at-home gestational diabetes test should instead be used as an alert to whether or not your situation will require further measures to help you control the long-term effects of gestational diabetes.

Diabetes Glucose Test - There are a number of different methods to apply a diabetes glucose test, the most common being a fasting plasma glucose test (FPG) or an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). If any indication of diabetes or pre-diabetes is reached during these tests, your doctor might request that you more closely monitor your blood glucose levels with a daily or repeated diabetes glucose test performed at home, ensuring no sudden changes in your blood glucose levels.

Diabetes Diagnostic Test - Usually, a diabetes diagnostic test follows eight hours of fasting, as with a fasting plasma glucose (FPG) test or an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). The FPG test is the preferred diabetes diagnostic test, and if it returns a positive result, should be followed in a few days with another FPG test to confirm the condition of pre-diabetes or onset diabetes.

Diabetes Blood Test - A regularly performed diabetes blood test provides valuable, necessary information to help reach this goal. There are two common forms of a diabetes blood test: a periodic A1c test (about 3-5 times a year in most cases), and what is referred to as SMBG, or self-monitoring of blood glucose.