Dr. Marjorie Greenfield
Specializing in pregnancy and birth.
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 Ask Dr. Greenfield
Sugar in One's Urine during Pregnancy | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Greenfield,
I'm 36 weeks pregnant, and when I go for my visits they find sugar in my urine. I've had two tests done to see if I've got gestational diabetes, but they came back normal. Is it because I eat too much sugar in my cereal in the morning before I go to the doctor? Also, they said my prick test they did on my finger was very low. What does that mean?— Irene in Fort Pirece, FL | | | ANSWER |
February 6, 2002 | | | Dear Irene,
I think that I have good news for you. Sugar in the urine only means that it is getting past the filtering mechanism of your kidneys. In people who aren't pregnant, this only happens when the sugar level in their blood gets dangerously high. But for unknown reasons, sugar can leak past the kidneys in healthy non-diabetic pregnant women, even when the sugar level in the blood is normal. It is called having a low renal (kidney) threshold for spilling sugar.
Normally when a pregnant woman spills sugar into her urine, we do just what your doctor did--check for diabetes earlier than usual, just to be sure, and then check again at the usual time, around 26 to 28 weeks, since some women don't develop gestational diabetes until then. But since your diabetes tests are normal, the most likely reason you are spilling sugar is that your kidneys have this low threshold for spilling sugar during pregnancy, and it means nothing bad about you or your baby's health. It will stop after you give birth, although it might happen again in your next pregnancy.
Having a low blood sugar on your finger stick blood test also is common in pregnancy and doesn't mean anything as long as you are feeling well. Since you aren't diabetic and you have been feeling fine, the sugar in your urine and low sugar in your blood are both normal findings. I don't think you need to worry about this any more. Take care, and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy!— by Marjorie Greenfield, M.D. |
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