Women with gestational diabetes through 2 pregnancies at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-05-10 01:00

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Canadian scientists say women who have gestational diabetes during two pregnancies are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes after the second pregnancy. They looked at health records for 431,980 women who had given birth twice, 10,920 of whom had gestational diabetes during their first pregnancy, 16,145 of whom had it during their second pregnancy, and 8,255 of whom had it during both pregnancies. They found women who had gestational diabetes during their second pregnancy, but not their first, had a 76% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women who had gestational diabetes during their first pregnancy, but not their second. And the highest risk of type 2 diabetes was seen among women who had gestational diabetes during both of their pregnancies. They were more than three times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as women who only had gestational diabetes during the first pregnancy. The findings could help doctors predict a woman's risk of going on to develop type 2 diabetes following pregnancy more accurately, the authors say.