No water for 12 hours before 3 hour glucose screen?

[jammomma]

Is it normal procedure for OB's to not only make you fast for 12 hours before the 3 hour glucose screen, but to also deny any water at all?

I am just having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. I have spoken with the nurse...three times, and got the same answer every time: NO WATER AT ALL from midnite until the test is completed the next day. This means I will have to go about 12 hours with no water?

This just seems wrong.

Am I just being difficult?

[aricha]

I couldn't remember from the times I have done it myself, so I looked online and all the references I saw said you could drink water during the test... like during the three hours... I can't imagine they are right... granted, I am not a doctor, but that doesn't seem right.

[cristeen]

No, you're not being difficult.

A - Dehydration can screw with your test results.
B - Asking a pregnant woman to go 12 hours without any sort of hydration is foolhardy and irresponsible.

My textbooks indicate the the GTT is typically done after a 12 hour water only fast.

[AFWife]

Yeah, I have iffy veins so my OB's office encouraged me to drink LOTS of water before I came in

[lilliansmom]

My handout from OB doesn't say no water. I drank a ton of water during the test and before. Maybe call the lab and ask them.

[BarefootScientist]

I think it's ridiculous and unsafe to ask a pregnant woman not to drink as much water as she is thirsty for! How would water mess with the results anyway?

But I never had this test done so I don't know.

[emmaegbert]

Your instructions sound wrong to me.

I was specifically told that water was fine during the fast.

I was told only to drink "sips" of water during the 3-hour test (I guess if I really guzzled a LOT of water it could dilute the solution in my stomach or something like that?) but nobody ever suggested that I should dehydrate myself! Yuck, the test is bad enough as it is.

[Amydoula]

That's COMPLETELY incorrect. I just took the 3 hour last week. You can drink water all night and even during the test. Just no food or other beverages. My midwife and the lab people were all in agreement.

[JD5351]

My friend had to take the 3 hour, and she was only allowed water from midnight on till she took the test. During the test no water, because it could dilute.

I took the 1 hour last week and the lab told me I could have a few sips of water if I needed to, but not to eat or drink much (They said I could have a cracker or two, and a little bit of water) but too much could alter the test results.

[LittleLlama]

Scrap the GTT with the nasty drink. Reschedule for an A1C panel that will be an accurate picture of what your sugars have been for the last MONTH with no fasting required. Just insist that you'll pass out if you fast or vomit if you drink the glucola.

[jammomma]

Thanks everyone, I am calling my OB today to have her explain why the nurse told me no water for 12 hours before the test.

I am hoping the nurse is just wrong, and my OB says I can have water, otherwise I think I may be in the market for a new OB!

[mariacm]

Not speaking from experience here, but I hear that the body does not process the Glucola the same way as it processes food. So that means it's not as accurate a measure of how your body handles blood sugar as it should be. So I would either ask for hte A1C or ask to do the 3-hour with Jelly beans or another alternative. (Read somewhere there is an agreed-upon number of jelly beans that equal the sugar amount, 18 maybe?)

And I agree with OP, drink water! That's ridiculous.

[emmaegbert]

There is a "jelly bean protocol" if your HCP is willing to follow it which *might* be better, but its a LOT of jelly beans to eat in 5 minutes to equal the 100g (not 50g) drink.

As I understand it, the problem with the A1C test is that if you actually have Gestational Diabetes it won't have been present for the past month (as opposed to underlying pre-existing insulin resistance/"prediabetes", or undiagnosed diabetes). GD develops as a maternal response to placental hormones later in pregnancy, and so an average can be very inaccurate. It also typically increases over time, and peaks a few weeks before birth (when the placenta matures). The whole duration of the condition is so short and if your goal is diet control (if that is possible), you'd want to know early and figure out the diet as soon as possible, not wait until you've been abnormal for a month first.

IF you "fail" the 3hrGTT you will learn a *lot* through self-monitoring about how your body is processing and handling sugars and carbs from your real food because you'll be logging everything you eat and testing 4x per day.

Anyway, just my experience from having GD and diet controlling. I passed a 3htGTT at 20 weeks and then failed one (borderline) at 25. So, not sure what an avg of that month would have shown.

Hope you pass! Definitely don't refrain from water- that is wrong and unhealthy.

[ShwarmaQueen]

I wouldn't fast from water for the purposes of testing. Food yes.

[LittleLlama]

IME, when I said i wanted to do the A1C, they had me do it farther out than the standard GTT.