Women who suffered from gestational diabetes during one or both of their first two pregnancies are subsequently significantly more at risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes, warns a study published by a researcher at the Center’s Research Institute McGill Health University.
If the association between gestational diabetes and a subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes was already well known, this is one of the first times that scientists have decided to measure it more precisely, and their findings are alarming.
Doctor Kaberi Dasgupta and her colleagues found that, compared to women who never suffered from gestational diabetes, those who suffered from it during their first pregnancy subsequently had a more than four times greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
This risk was 7.5 times greater in women who suffered from gestational diabetes during their second pregnancy, and sixteen times greater in those who suffered from it during both pregnancies.
“We have shown that if you have gestational diabetes during the first pregnancy, you have an increased risk, but it is less than women who develop gestational diabetes for the first time during the second pregnancy,” summarized Dr. Dasgupta . And the greatest risk is in women who had gestational diabetes during both pregnancies. »
Dr. Dasgupta and her team used data from Quebec administrative health registers and birth and death registers to form a study group of 431,980 women who had two births between 1990 and 2012, who did not suffer diabetes before or between their pregnancies. The researchers then wanted to know if they had developed diabetes during the period up to 2019.
Beyond the increased risk of type 2 diabetes, their results suggest that women who had gestational diabetes during their first pregnancy, but not during the second, may have changed their lifestyle habits – diet, physical activity and so on ― between the two.
They should now be encouraged to continue on this good path by learning that they have also reduced their future risk of type 2 diabetes, say the authors of the study.
On the other hand, the appearance of gestational diabetes during the second pregnancy, but not during the first, could indicate a deterioration in the woman’s state of health between the two episodes. This could also explain why the risk of type 2 diabetes is higher after the second pregnancy than after the first.
“For women who have had two gestational diabetes cases, it is certain that we must act quickly, but it is not easy for everyone (to change lifestyle habits), especially for mothers and women who have all these responsibilities,” said Dr. Dasgupta.
It will therefore be important to put in place support programs to support these women, she added, since many of them will be motivated to take care of their health, if only to be able to care for their children in the long term, avoiding the serious consequences that type 2 diabetes can cause.
“The idea will really be to personalize care and not think that all women who have gestational diabetes are the same,” concluded Dr. Dasgupta. There are differences between them and it really makes you think about them. »
It is estimated that approximately 10% of pregnancies will be affected by gestational diabetes.
The findings of this study were published by the medical journal JAMA Network Open.