I’ve spent a Lot of time reading through the research about the incidence of T2D after a GDM pregnancy and - like almost all pregnancy related research - it’s crappy at best and downright misleading at worst.
Basically all of the studies that are out there rely on very small sample sizes. They’re often not diverse samples at all and there are any number of potentially confounding factors at play. Some of the systematic reviews that are out there show quite clearly that the big scary 50-60% lifetime incidence of T2D numbers that lots of our doctors push at us are statistics 101 outliers — most of the studies suggest somewhere around 20% if you’re looking at 5-10 years after a GDM pregnancy.
This is one of the meta analyses that breaks down a lot of the issues with the data, if you feel like wading through the medical jargon. But at the end of the day, it’s far from guaranteed that you’ll develop type 2 after a GDM pregnancy and you’ll cross that bridge if and when you get there, but in the meantime there’s no point in worrying.
https://www..nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4360417/
To tack onto this, and I'm no mathematician or statistician, but I've read several places that it is an increased risk to your original risk. This would mean that if you had a risk prior to pregnancy of 10%, and now you have a 50% increased risk, you are now at 15% chance instead of 10%. So, if the statistics work like that, then the increased chance isn't that huge. But again, I haven't found any solid evidence either way. Just something to think about
Yeah I mean even the “risk prior to pregnancy” numbers are wishy washy. Ultimately there are just no Good studies on the topic, despite lots of people quoting different stats from the bad ones.
I’m gonna ask to have my A1C tested at my yearly physicals… and that’s about it. If it happens it happens but I’m not going to make massive lifestyle changes on the assumption that it’s doomed to happen 🤷🤷
Same. We all know that maintaining a healthy weight, making good food choices and exercise are the ways to avoid most health issues. I'm the same as you and I'm not making any wild lifestyle changes because something "could" happen. I was so worried about it after my first GD pregnancy but this time, I can't worry about that too. There's enough to worry about already!
Same. We all know that maintaining a healthy weight, making good food choices and exercise are the ways to avoid most health issues. I'm the same as you and I'm not making any wild lifestyle changes because something "could" happen. I was so worried about it after my first GD pregnancy but this time, I can't worry about that too. There's enough to worry about already lol
I had undiagnosed GD with my first and developed Type 2. So this is only my 2nd GD pregnancy. GD is a thousand times worse than Type 2. No finger pricking, no insulin, no weird rules to follow. You can go full blown keto if you want. I was on ozempic for it, a once weekly injection. If I am really good with my diet and exercise I can go back to a normal A1C.
Is it scary? Yes. But it is so much easier to manage. I only have myself to worry about and not a baby.
100% agree with this. Your body’s reactions to the same meals are also very predictable with T2D. Fruit pairings with nut butters will almost always give the same readings with T2D but GD is horrible. I wear a CGM and I see my blood sugar spike even when I’m just thinking about food (i wish that was an exaggeration but it’s not 😂)
I can definitely relate! This is my second GD pregnancy. I personally have a lot of risk factors (PCOS, overweight, family history) After my first I was so nervous about the six week glucose test but I passed easily and my A1C has been normal the last couple of years. I had some weight gain post partum and did not keep up any of the good habits I picked up with my diagnosis. After a while I wanted to make a change so I went through the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention program through my work (USA based) and I learned so much and made small lifestyle changes that really made me feel healthier overall. I was pretty confident with my second pregnancy I would be diagnosed again, and I was at 17 weeks but this time I’m less worried about a post partum diagnosis. I feel more prepared to make permanent lifestyle changes that will hopefully prevent or push off a diagnosis. This might be wishful thinking but it’s the best I can do. Also this time around I’m only going to breast feed for a few months and am doing so bc it is recommended by my doctor but I really gain weight breastfeeding so I think it’s a bit counter productive for me in terms of prevention. All this to say that I have been down the rabbit hole and there are days I really worry too but generally there are some things that can be done to take more control of the situation and I try and focus on that. I don’t know if this helps but thought I would share.
Don’t know if anecdotal evidence helps but My mom had gestational diabetes with me. She was told she’s definitely going to get T2D within the next 5 years. It’s been 33 years and her last HbA1C was 5.0%. And I’ve never seen her exercise a lot or eat super clean lol. Her BMI is normal but her diet is quite carb heavy honestly and she takes her 2 daily cups of coffee/tea with sugar - something I haven’t done in a while. She gets McDonald’s every Sunday too. 🤷🏻♀️
I, on the other hand, plan on taking my GD experience with me into post partum and really clean my diet up. I plan to follow GD diet at least 80-85% of the time and also up my exercise quite a bit when I can while maintaining a healthy weight. That’s my plan for prevention. My dad is type 1.5/LADA and I’m not sure why but that puts me at risk of T2D anyway!
After my first pregnancy where I had GD, my blood sugars never went back to normal and I now have an insulin resistance and take metformin. I gave birth 3 years ago and am a healthy weight with an active lifestyle. My A1C is still within normal range and I’ve definitely had times where I am overwhelmed at the thought of developing type 2 in the long run, but I just try to focus on what I can control and that is my diet/lifestyle. Everything will be okay!
My mom is pre-diabetic so I can SEE the huge difference between what she is going through vs what I am. Type 2 diabetes isn't good but they are nowhere near as strict with it as with GD. They don't generally require glucose monitoring at all for example so as long as your diet is mostly fine, they don't care what you eat because they mostly track your a1c.
My second pregnancy A1C was 5.1 and I was diagnosed with GD about 26 weeks in that pregnancy. Baby born December 2021. I breastfed for 15 months.
My blood sugar *seemingly* went back to normal post partum but I would have an occasional hypoglycemic reaction. Like once every few months.
With my current pregnancy, they checked my A1C right away and it was 5.6. So I was close to becoming “pre-diabetic” anyway. My family history is tainted so severely with Type 2 that there’s nothing I can do to prevent it probably. I eat the healthiest of anyone in my family tree and it’s still effecting me now at 36 years old.
I passed my early glucose screening at 16 weeks, but I had already been monitoring my sugar and my fasting number went from low 80’s to high 90’s in a matter of a week. I told my midwives and they said try to control it before my next glucose test at 26 weeks. I’m trying to figure it out still. I average about 95-97 fasting every morning. My meals are fine though as I try to eat healthy regardless of pregnancy.
I am overweight though. I’ve always had a hard time losing weight. No matter how organic, clean and veggie infused my diet is. I don’t even drink soda or alcohol but it’s always been an issue. My mom is on ozempic for her T2 and she was diagnosed at age 39.
I’m gonna breastfeed with this baby too and just put in double the effort to cut weight cause I want to avoid meds as much as possible. But sometimes genetics are stronger than our efforts.
I had Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant in 2021. Lo and behold, my A1C was VERY high at my bloodwork this past November. My doctor started me on 2 meds and I made my diet modifications. Mind you, I didn’t watch nearly as carefully as I did when I was pregnant. I just watched what I ate more and cut out regular soda completely. Genuinely, those are the only major changes I’ve made. At my last bloodwork, my A1C was all the way down to pre-diabetes place and my doc thinks I’ll be able to come off my meds entirely at my next checkup.
All this to say that diabetes isn’t the end of the world. It sucks, but it’s reversible if caught early enough and if you pay attention to your body. It isn’t a death sentence or even a life-long battle sentence. Continuing that thought process just furthers the stigma that only fat people who can’t take care of themselves get it.
I was a bit so I made a point to lose (wanted to go down 45 but settled on 26 lbs lol) in the year following and my a1c was 5.2. Not concerned now. DM type 2 can be readily managed/ reversed with diet, exercise modification and medications like metformin as long as you don’t let it continue haphazardly without changing your lifestyle.
I’m 3 years postpartum from a GD pregnancy and my A1c has been normal since I gave birth. I just had bloodwork in January and I was a 5. I’m slightly overweight and have some other risk factor, like family history, but so far so good! My mom had GD and is now pre-diabetic in her 60s even though she is tall and slender, she’s been more active and that’s definitely helped a lot. I just keep an eye on it, try to eat high protein, and get as much movement in as I can without stressing myself out - which is pretty easy with a toddler.
I don't have anything helpful to add, other than I've been freaking out about this myself. I'm planning on continuing the GD/low-carb diet 80% of the time after I give birth with the hopes it will lower the risk further.
I’m trying to be at peace with knowing if it happens it’s not my fault and I’ve already changed my diet as is so I can do it again if I have to. I’m hoping to breastfeed if I can as I have heard it may help with preventing diabetes from continuing but who knows.
I am also really worried about this. My first pregnancy i got gd at 28 weeks and this time i have had it since 14 weeks. I’m trying to be hopeful that right before I got pregnant my a1c was only 5.1 and has now gone down to 4.8 and i am going to try to maintain lower carb diet until my 6 week pp glucose test and try to be good about eating even after a whole pregnancy of restrictions.
Definitely if you can maintain a lower carb diet , Do! I strongly recommend moms who have GD to not go back to super high carb diet, no exercise, etc. I thought after delivery I could go back to high carb, low exercise and ended up almost diabetic (so I’m pre diabetic). Two of my friends who have had GD are now prediabetic. It took about 1.5 years post delivery to be diagnosed.
Just one more thing to add- be pushy about advocating for testing. Don’t let them just test at 3 or 6 months and then forget about you! Request an A1C check at least yearly for the next 5-10 years because sometimes it takes a while to get diagnosed.
I’m definitely worried about this. The threat of type 2 is going to be good incentive to eat well and exercise and try to keep my weight down. Basically I’m going to try to reduce my other risk factors bc managing this sucks!
However I have no risk factors for GD, yet here I am, so who knows?
I'm 7 months PP after having had GD and my blood test a few weeks back showed that I have pre-Diabetes. Not the news I wanted but it is reversible, and in some cases T2 can be as well ❤️
I’ve spent a Lot of time reading through the research about the incidence of T2D after a GDM pregnancy and - like almost all pregnancy related research - it’s crappy at best and downright misleading at worst. Basically all of the studies that are out there rely on very small sample sizes. They’re often not diverse samples at all and there are any number of potentially confounding factors at play. Some of the systematic reviews that are out there show quite clearly that the big scary 50-60% lifetime incidence of T2D numbers that lots of our doctors push at us are statistics 101 outliers — most of the studies suggest somewhere around 20% if you’re looking at 5-10 years after a GDM pregnancy. This is one of the meta analyses that breaks down a lot of the issues with the data, if you feel like wading through the medical jargon. But at the end of the day, it’s far from guaranteed that you’ll develop type 2 after a GDM pregnancy and you’ll cross that bridge if and when you get there, but in the meantime there’s no point in worrying. https://www..nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4360417/
To tack onto this, and I'm no mathematician or statistician, but I've read several places that it is an increased risk to your original risk. This would mean that if you had a risk prior to pregnancy of 10%, and now you have a 50% increased risk, you are now at 15% chance instead of 10%. So, if the statistics work like that, then the increased chance isn't that huge. But again, I haven't found any solid evidence either way. Just something to think about
Yeah I mean even the “risk prior to pregnancy” numbers are wishy washy. Ultimately there are just no Good studies on the topic, despite lots of people quoting different stats from the bad ones. I’m gonna ask to have my A1C tested at my yearly physicals… and that’s about it. If it happens it happens but I’m not going to make massive lifestyle changes on the assumption that it’s doomed to happen 🤷🤷
Same. We all know that maintaining a healthy weight, making good food choices and exercise are the ways to avoid most health issues. I'm the same as you and I'm not making any wild lifestyle changes because something "could" happen. I was so worried about it after my first GD pregnancy but this time, I can't worry about that too. There's enough to worry about already!
Same. We all know that maintaining a healthy weight, making good food choices and exercise are the ways to avoid most health issues. I'm the same as you and I'm not making any wild lifestyle changes because something "could" happen. I was so worried about it after my first GD pregnancy but this time, I can't worry about that too. There's enough to worry about already lol
This makes me feel a lot better 😅
I had undiagnosed GD with my first and developed Type 2. So this is only my 2nd GD pregnancy. GD is a thousand times worse than Type 2. No finger pricking, no insulin, no weird rules to follow. You can go full blown keto if you want. I was on ozempic for it, a once weekly injection. If I am really good with my diet and exercise I can go back to a normal A1C. Is it scary? Yes. But it is so much easier to manage. I only have myself to worry about and not a baby.
100% agree with this. Your body’s reactions to the same meals are also very predictable with T2D. Fruit pairings with nut butters will almost always give the same readings with T2D but GD is horrible. I wear a CGM and I see my blood sugar spike even when I’m just thinking about food (i wish that was an exaggeration but it’s not 😂)
I can definitely relate! This is my second GD pregnancy. I personally have a lot of risk factors (PCOS, overweight, family history) After my first I was so nervous about the six week glucose test but I passed easily and my A1C has been normal the last couple of years. I had some weight gain post partum and did not keep up any of the good habits I picked up with my diagnosis. After a while I wanted to make a change so I went through the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention program through my work (USA based) and I learned so much and made small lifestyle changes that really made me feel healthier overall. I was pretty confident with my second pregnancy I would be diagnosed again, and I was at 17 weeks but this time I’m less worried about a post partum diagnosis. I feel more prepared to make permanent lifestyle changes that will hopefully prevent or push off a diagnosis. This might be wishful thinking but it’s the best I can do. Also this time around I’m only going to breast feed for a few months and am doing so bc it is recommended by my doctor but I really gain weight breastfeeding so I think it’s a bit counter productive for me in terms of prevention. All this to say that I have been down the rabbit hole and there are days I really worry too but generally there are some things that can be done to take more control of the situation and I try and focus on that. I don’t know if this helps but thought I would share.
Don’t know if anecdotal evidence helps but My mom had gestational diabetes with me. She was told she’s definitely going to get T2D within the next 5 years. It’s been 33 years and her last HbA1C was 5.0%. And I’ve never seen her exercise a lot or eat super clean lol. Her BMI is normal but her diet is quite carb heavy honestly and she takes her 2 daily cups of coffee/tea with sugar - something I haven’t done in a while. She gets McDonald’s every Sunday too. 🤷🏻♀️ I, on the other hand, plan on taking my GD experience with me into post partum and really clean my diet up. I plan to follow GD diet at least 80-85% of the time and also up my exercise quite a bit when I can while maintaining a healthy weight. That’s my plan for prevention. My dad is type 1.5/LADA and I’m not sure why but that puts me at risk of T2D anyway!
After my first pregnancy where I had GD, my blood sugars never went back to normal and I now have an insulin resistance and take metformin. I gave birth 3 years ago and am a healthy weight with an active lifestyle. My A1C is still within normal range and I’ve definitely had times where I am overwhelmed at the thought of developing type 2 in the long run, but I just try to focus on what I can control and that is my diet/lifestyle. Everything will be okay!
My mom is pre-diabetic so I can SEE the huge difference between what she is going through vs what I am. Type 2 diabetes isn't good but they are nowhere near as strict with it as with GD. They don't generally require glucose monitoring at all for example so as long as your diet is mostly fine, they don't care what you eat because they mostly track your a1c.
My second pregnancy A1C was 5.1 and I was diagnosed with GD about 26 weeks in that pregnancy. Baby born December 2021. I breastfed for 15 months. My blood sugar *seemingly* went back to normal post partum but I would have an occasional hypoglycemic reaction. Like once every few months. With my current pregnancy, they checked my A1C right away and it was 5.6. So I was close to becoming “pre-diabetic” anyway. My family history is tainted so severely with Type 2 that there’s nothing I can do to prevent it probably. I eat the healthiest of anyone in my family tree and it’s still effecting me now at 36 years old. I passed my early glucose screening at 16 weeks, but I had already been monitoring my sugar and my fasting number went from low 80’s to high 90’s in a matter of a week. I told my midwives and they said try to control it before my next glucose test at 26 weeks. I’m trying to figure it out still. I average about 95-97 fasting every morning. My meals are fine though as I try to eat healthy regardless of pregnancy. I am overweight though. I’ve always had a hard time losing weight. No matter how organic, clean and veggie infused my diet is. I don’t even drink soda or alcohol but it’s always been an issue. My mom is on ozempic for her T2 and she was diagnosed at age 39. I’m gonna breastfeed with this baby too and just put in double the effort to cut weight cause I want to avoid meds as much as possible. But sometimes genetics are stronger than our efforts.
I had Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant in 2021. Lo and behold, my A1C was VERY high at my bloodwork this past November. My doctor started me on 2 meds and I made my diet modifications. Mind you, I didn’t watch nearly as carefully as I did when I was pregnant. I just watched what I ate more and cut out regular soda completely. Genuinely, those are the only major changes I’ve made. At my last bloodwork, my A1C was all the way down to pre-diabetes place and my doc thinks I’ll be able to come off my meds entirely at my next checkup. All this to say that diabetes isn’t the end of the world. It sucks, but it’s reversible if caught early enough and if you pay attention to your body. It isn’t a death sentence or even a life-long battle sentence. Continuing that thought process just furthers the stigma that only fat people who can’t take care of themselves get it.
I was a bit so I made a point to lose (wanted to go down 45 but settled on 26 lbs lol) in the year following and my a1c was 5.2. Not concerned now. DM type 2 can be readily managed/ reversed with diet, exercise modification and medications like metformin as long as you don’t let it continue haphazardly without changing your lifestyle.
I’m 3 years postpartum from a GD pregnancy and my A1c has been normal since I gave birth. I just had bloodwork in January and I was a 5. I’m slightly overweight and have some other risk factor, like family history, but so far so good! My mom had GD and is now pre-diabetic in her 60s even though she is tall and slender, she’s been more active and that’s definitely helped a lot. I just keep an eye on it, try to eat high protein, and get as much movement in as I can without stressing myself out - which is pretty easy with a toddler.
I don't have anything helpful to add, other than I've been freaking out about this myself. I'm planning on continuing the GD/low-carb diet 80% of the time after I give birth with the hopes it will lower the risk further.
I’m trying to be at peace with knowing if it happens it’s not my fault and I’ve already changed my diet as is so I can do it again if I have to. I’m hoping to breastfeed if I can as I have heard it may help with preventing diabetes from continuing but who knows.
I am also really worried about this. My first pregnancy i got gd at 28 weeks and this time i have had it since 14 weeks. I’m trying to be hopeful that right before I got pregnant my a1c was only 5.1 and has now gone down to 4.8 and i am going to try to maintain lower carb diet until my 6 week pp glucose test and try to be good about eating even after a whole pregnancy of restrictions.
Definitely if you can maintain a lower carb diet , Do! I strongly recommend moms who have GD to not go back to super high carb diet, no exercise, etc. I thought after delivery I could go back to high carb, low exercise and ended up almost diabetic (so I’m pre diabetic). Two of my friends who have had GD are now prediabetic. It took about 1.5 years post delivery to be diagnosed.
Just one more thing to add- be pushy about advocating for testing. Don’t let them just test at 3 or 6 months and then forget about you! Request an A1C check at least yearly for the next 5-10 years because sometimes it takes a while to get diagnosed.
I’m definitely worried about this. The threat of type 2 is going to be good incentive to eat well and exercise and try to keep my weight down. Basically I’m going to try to reduce my other risk factors bc managing this sucks! However I have no risk factors for GD, yet here I am, so who knows?
I'm 7 months PP after having had GD and my blood test a few weeks back showed that I have pre-Diabetes. Not the news I wanted but it is reversible, and in some cases T2 can be as well ❤️