PREGNANCY IS an exciting time in a woman’s life, but it carries the risk of gestational diabetes. And the 5 percent of pregnant women who develop the condition are much more likely to get diabetes later in life. Unfortunately, communication failures and other glitches are keeping women from getting tested.
New evidence suggests mother and fetus are at risk at blood-sugar levels that were previously considered normal. So it’s welcome news that the American Diabetes Association has just released new testing guidelines, under which almost twice as many women will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Luckily, these additional cases will be mild and treatable with changes in diet and lifestyle.
Yet many pregnant women are never tested in the first place. The diabetes association recommends screening of all pregnant women. Yet a recent study by
Here’s a relatively inexpensive test — it costs under $100 — that can help prevent a costly disease, so why aren’t more women getting it?
For one thing, the test is somewhat unpleasant and inconvenient — a woman must drink a sickly-sweet syrup and come back in exactly one hour to have her blood drawn. Some patients might ignore or forget their doctor’s request for taking the test, says endocrinologist Carol Wysham, who chairs the diabetes association committee that sets practice guidelines. Worse yet, the handoff that occurs when a new mother goes back to her primary-care physician from her gynecologist — a transition that usually happens six to 10 weeks after the birth — creates an even greater opportunity for attrition: It’s easy for the gynecologist to forget to order the test right after birth, and easier still for the primary care physician to forget to make sure the patient did it.
It’s no secret that millions of health care dollars are wasted every day on seemingly simple mistakes: Patients forgetting to take their pills, doctors too busy to follow up about tests. As for gestational diabetes, now is the time to close an evident gap.
