Anyone familar with how pregnancy effects bloodwork?

[ILoveSweetpea]

OK... I'm so lost!!

Now, this bloodwork was ordered in late December has my bps were rising and i was having some liver pains. I had to call three times for this blood work, and it took 2 weeks before they finally found the results (they blamed the lab for losing them). I was told on the phone everything looked "fine".

As almost an afterthought, I asked for a copy of my bloodwork today as I was leaving from an appointment. Now I am sitting here at home and scratching my head. Google is only getting me so far - and some stuff I'm can't find anywhere. But I see a lot of stuff are flagged as "high" or "low"... but yet my doctor's office said it was normal? I don't know if everything just goes out of whack when pregnant, and that's normal??

For anyone that's had PIH bloodwork (or any bloodwork in pregnancy that includes a CBC) can you help me out? Any insight would be great!

I'm just going to list the items that were flagged as high or low... I'm copying just what i see because i don't know what is important.

CBC
WBC HIGH 12.4 [4.1-11.0] K/MM3
Hemoglobin LOW 11.1 [12.0-16.0] gm/dL
Hematocrit LOW 33.7 [35.0-46.0] %
RDW HIGH 18.8 [0.0-14.8] %
MCV LOW 77.0 [80-99] FL
MCH LOW 25.3 [26-34] pg


CBC Differential
Lymphocyte LOW 14.4 [22-58] %
Granulocyte HIGH 80.1 [45-76] %

Comprehensive Metabolic P
Glucose HIGH 102 [60-100] mg/dl *non-fasting is written here in pen
Blood Urea Nitrogen LOW 5 [6-18] mg/dL
Creatinine LOW 0.5 [0.6-1.1] mg/dL
Albumin LOW 3.1 [3.2-5.1] gm/dL
A/G Ratio LOW 0.9 [1.2-2.7]


So to me that just seems like a lot of "flags" for normal bloodwork. Is anyone familiar with this? Are any of these concerning in your experience? I'll ask my doctor about at my next appointment, but i guess I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything odd enough on here that warranted immediate action/concern. Any opinions?

[cat2223]

I can never understand bloodwork terms either...and trying to google it just confuses me more lol

Just wanted to say that my WBC is always high during pregnancy and then drops back to normal after i have the baby.

[LemonPie]

Those ranges very a bit depending on who you talk ot. One lab might have slightly different criteria than what is 'high' or 'low' for any given test. All your flagged values were pretty close to the ranges given anyway, which is probably why your doc said 'normal'.

[SuzieQ3417]

The CBC looks like you probably have a mild iron deficiency anemia (low hemoglobin and hematocrit, low MCV, high RDW).

It's also quite common for the blood urea nitrogen and creatinine to be low during pregnancy - this is mostly due to increased blood flow to your kidneys (those numbers are usually only concerning when they are high). The glucose I wouldn't be worried about because you're weren't fasting (even if you were fasting, that value wouldn't be extremely worrisome, since a diagnosis of diabetes requires a fasting glucose of at least 126 on two separate occasions).

Not sure about the differential or the albumin and A/G ratio, but they don't seem too far off from the reference ranges.

[mysticmomma]

:

[ILoveSweetpea]

Originally Posted by SuzieQ3417

The CBC looks like you probably have a mild iron deficiency anemia (low hemoglobin and hematocrit, low MCV, high RDW).

It's also quite common for the blood urea nitrogen and creatinine to be low during pregnancy - this is mostly due to increased blood flow to your kidneys (those numbers are usually only concerning when they are high). The glucose I wouldn't be worried about because you're weren't fasting (even if you were fasting, that value wouldn't be extremely worrisome, since a diagnosis of diabetes requires a fasting glucose of at least 126 on two separate occasions).

Not sure about the differential or the albumin and A/G ratio, but they don't seem too far off from the reference ranges.

Thanks so much! You were way more helpful than two hours worth of googling this stuff! LOL!!

I'm not surprised if I'm anemic. I tend to be borderline anemic when not pregnant. I'll look into upping my iron.


Thanks to everyone that responded!! I really appreciate it!

[curvyred]

I think it's quite common for some levels to be outside of the typical "norm" when pregnant. For some components, there is a dilution effect-- ie, your body makes quite a bit more blood so some of the components are present in smaller amounts because they're diluted down. I also had a lower albumin level and my midwives said it was not at ALL unusual to see lower albumin levels during pg.

Sorry they got you all breaked out!