In preparation for a healthy pregnancy throughout the delivery period, the Obstetrician may require several clinicall tests to the expectant moms. At 20 weeks of my pregnancy, my obstetrician advise me to have the congenital anomaly scan which turns out to be good because the results were all in normal condition.
In addition, Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT), Urinalysis, CBC, and Hepatitis Ag (HBsAg) are the medical tests that my OB/GYN require me to take.
Oral Glucose Tolerance test (OGTT) is a test to diagnose diabetes, and gestational diabetes. The OGTT is important in pregnancy (common during 24th- 28th week of pregnancy) because pregnancy affects a woman’s ability to metabolize blood sugar. Poorly controlled diabetes can have serious short- and long-term consequences for you and your baby.
How OGTT is conducted? In my own experience when I inquire for the OGTT, they told me to do fasting for at least 8 to 12 hours before having the test. After fasting, blood is drawn to establish a fasting glucose level. Since I have urinalysis test, they require me to collect the urine first before they take blood for testing. The nurse told me that for OGTT, blood extraction will be every hour for four times. No drinks or any food is allowed to be taken. First blood extraction is for FBS test then for OGTT 1 to 3.
After blood extraction for FBS, a patient must quickly drink a sugary (glucose-rich) beverage. In my OGTT I drunk a sugary beverage with 100 grams glucose powder mixture . It was so sweet and I almost wanted to spit it so what I did is to gargle with water after drinking the sugary beverage. After an hour, the nurse extracted blood from me and I waited for another hour for another blood extraction. I started at 8:30AM and ended at 12:30 PM without eating anything. I just drink a few once of water.
To know the results, Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) has reference values: (source: New World Diagnostic Inc.)
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) in pregnancy reference values
100 grams glucose powder
TEST Reference Values
- Fasting (FBS) –74.00 – 106.00 mg/dL
- OGTT 1 ——–95.00 – 184 mg/dL
- OGTT 2 ——–81.00 – 139.00 mg/dL
- OGTT 3 ——–70.00 – 110.00 mg/dL
The results should be within the reference values. Consult your doctor for reading the results and to learn any recommendations based from the results.
For my laboratory examination, I went to New World Diagnostic Inc. in a nearby branch in Quezon City at the Philippine College of Surgeon (Between SM North Annex). They are open from Monday to Saturday from 6:00 am – 6:00 pm. Sunday and holidays from 6:00 am to 12 noon. New World Diagnostic Inc. have several branches, you may call (632)711-3054 to contact them. For more details, please visit their website at http://nwdi.com.ph.
The price/cost of my laboratory examination at New World Diagnostic Inc. as of 9/11/12
- OGTT —————— Php 580.00
- Urinalysis —————-Php 60.00
- Complete Blood Count – Php 95.00
- HBsAg ——————Php 190.00
The total amount that I paid is only Php 925.00.
They have a cutoff for the laboratory examination and since I ended the blood extraction at 12:30 pm, I was able to get the laboratory results the other day. What’s good about their website is that you can view and print the tests results online the next day.
I am thankful that all the clinical test were normal. When I presented the results to my obstetrician, she told me to keep my healthy diet and she will again refer me to take another medical test after two months. I still need to take extra care in eating sugar because I have one high value in the OGTT results.
Related Pregnancy Articles:
Pregnancy Symptoms and what you can do about it.
The First Trimester (weeks 1 to 12)
The Second Trimester (weeks 13 to 27)
Classical music in pregnancy for baby’s brain development
The Third Trimester (weeks 28 to 42)
18
I remember taking this test with both my pregnancies. Thank goodness the results came out good. I’m glad all your test came out normal
Good for you. I had Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant.
I never had this test when I was pregnant
i’ve heard about this test from my cousin who is due to give birth next month. when I was pregnant with my boys, I didn’t have this test.
i never had that test when i was pregnant but they say your sugar should really be monitored especially if your high risk pregnancy.
Hay, so many expenses when pregnant but it’s a must for the safety of the mother and the baby. But I didn’t take this when I was pregnant. Just some blood work, urinalysis and ultrasound.
My OB also had me take these tests when I was pregnant with ykaie!
Grabe! I know there are lots of tests I had done during pregnancy but I forget now what they are! Haha! Antagal na kasi. Anlaki na rin ni Jedi boy. 🙂
I didn’t remember if I had a congenital anomaly scan when I was pregnant; I must have but couldn’t remember. Lol! I also had the OGTT test done, which was also normal. I was very particular about my sweets intake when I was pregnant, which was probably the reason why I didn’t develop gestational diabetes.