When you have gestational diabetes, you may need to make simple changes in your diet and exercise to achieve the best blood sugar levels for the wellbeing of you and your baby, or you might need to boost your wellness further with insulin. However, there is another option that can be used, or instead of insulin – oral medications.
There are two oral medications that are commonly used for gestational, as well as type 2 diabetes treatment. The first is glyburide (Glynase, Diabeta, Micronase) which works by stimulating your pancreas to produce more insulin. This helps your cells absorb energy from your food, which keeps your blood sugar levels in the right range. The second oral medication is metformin (Glumetza, Glucophage, Fortamet, Riomet), and is used to decrease the amount of glucose (sugar) that your liver makes, which keeps your blood sugar level low and boosts your body’s insulin response.
Oral medications are usually only prescribed when your insulin medications and diet are not effective at controlling your blood sugar levels. Though this has not yet been FDA approved for use in gestational diabetes, with more studies being completed, professional opinion about these drugs seems to be changing. There’s no doubt that these medications are effective at controlling diabetes, but there is a controversy around whether or not these drugs damage your pregnancy and developing foetus. Therefore your doctor has to proceed with caution when prescribing you an oral medication.
Though glyburide is similar to insulin, in that it does not seem to cross the placenta and enter the bloodstream of the developing baby, metformin crosses the placenta in small doses. However, studies have not found evidence to suggest that metformin damages the developing foetus. Also, as gestational diabetes diagnosis usually doesn’t occur until the end of the second or beginning of the third trimester, there is a minimal risk to your baby as you won’t use these drugs during the first trimester of pregnancy when his organs are forming. Also, some women prefer taking pills rather than injections, which means that compliance with the treatment is more likely. If you’ve tried diet, exercise, and insulin, but your blood sugar levels are still too high, perhaps you and your doctor should see if oral medications are the next step for you.
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