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What Causes Low Blood Sugar Levels And Passing Out During Pregnancy?
Hello, I am a 17 week pregnant 30 year old women. I recently had some blood work done at my prenatal appointment with my OB/GYN. I explained to her that I was still experiencing some symptoms like severe fatigue, nausea, problems with low blood pressure, worsening migraines, I will wake up in the middle of the night severly hungry and craving sugar enough to make me get out of bed and eat a cookie or something sweet and drink juice, however, during the day I have strong cravings for salt. I have also recently been having problems with heart palpations that will last anywhere from 30 seconds to one minute. I have other symptoms as well but those are some of the basics. My OB/GYN ran some blood tests and two days after the tests and before i was informed of the results I had an episode of where I passed out while driving my vehicle. just before I passed out I became incredibly disoriented while driving and had no understanding of what I was doing. I was awoken to a man knocking on my vehicle window. when I arrived home and went to exit the vehicle I passed out again. I called my OB/GYN and informed her of what had happend. She then informed me that my test results two days prior had shown a blood glucose level of 50 after eating. She indicated that it was very low and that she thought my blood glucose level had bottomed out causing me to pass out. And that I need to eat protein every two hours and not eat carbs. I am not diabetic nor do I take insulin. Also, a few months prior I had a high tsh test result and was put on synthroid. Is it normal for a pregnant women to have low blood sugar test results or to pass out while driving. Could there be another reason causing my low blood sugar or another reason as to while I passed out while driving. thank you for your time.
Tue, 7 Jun 2016
Hallow Dear,
You seem to have serious problem with your blood sugar. If you are not on insulin or any antidiabetic medicines, why should you land in hypoglycaemia? One or all of the following could be the cause:
1. You are taking less amount of carbohydrate. I agree that you need to have high protein diet; however, with such episodes of low blood sugar level, you need to take high carbohydrate diet. You should also carry Glucone D tablets with you. Whenever you feel acutely hungry, you should take one of the tablet even before you have your food. Moreover, please consult your Endocrinologist about this issue. May be high secretion of Glucagone (antidiabetogenic hormone) from the Pituitary could be high utilizing your sugar in the blood fast. Please undergo thorough endocrinology work up; till that, support your body with adequate sugar and carbohydrates. You should have rather frequent feeds.
2. During pregnancy, the kidney does throw out more sugar and hence the blood sugar level is at a lower range; however, if it is symptomatic, you have to support the body with adequate amount of sugar and complex carbohydrates also.
3. You are taking Levothyroxin sodium tablets. They are known to increase the body metabolism and thus reduce the blood sugar. Therefore with these tablets, one feels more hungry. Probably the dose of Levothyroxin is rather higher than what your body needs. Please monitor the dose with repeated estimations of blood TSH. During pregnancy, the normal values of TSH are under 3.5 in the middle three months of pregnancy. I would have appreciated had you mentioned the values of TSH. We may continue this discussion further if you ask me Direct question.
Please submit yourself for thorough investigations. Till the final diagnosis is clinched, please carry Glucone D tablets with you. Some degree of high sugar level is acceptable than low blood sugar level. Please consult your Diabetologist.
I hope this gives you initial message.
Dr. Nishikant Shrotri
You seem to have serious problem with your blood sugar. If you are not on insulin or any antidiabetic medicines, why should you land in hypoglycaemia? One or all of the following could be the cause:
1. You are taking less amount of carbohydrate. I agree that you need to have high protein diet; however, with such episodes of low blood sugar level, you need to take high carbohydrate diet. You should also carry Glucone D tablets with you. Whenever you feel acutely hungry, you should take one of the tablet even before you have your food. Moreover, please consult your Endocrinologist about this issue. May be high secretion of Glucagone (antidiabetogenic hormone) from the Pituitary could be high utilizing your sugar in the blood fast. Please undergo thorough endocrinology work up; till that, support your body with adequate sugar and carbohydrates. You should have rather frequent feeds.
2. During pregnancy, the kidney does throw out more sugar and hence the blood sugar level is at a lower range; however, if it is symptomatic, you have to support the body with adequate amount of sugar and complex carbohydrates also.
3. You are taking Levothyroxin sodium tablets. They are known to increase the body metabolism and thus reduce the blood sugar. Therefore with these tablets, one feels more hungry. Probably the dose of Levothyroxin is rather higher than what your body needs. Please monitor the dose with repeated estimations of blood TSH. During pregnancy, the normal values of TSH are under 3.5 in the middle three months of pregnancy. I would have appreciated had you mentioned the values of TSH. We may continue this discussion further if you ask me Direct question.
Please submit yourself for thorough investigations. Till the final diagnosis is clinched, please carry Glucone D tablets with you. Some degree of high sugar level is acceptable than low blood sugar level. Please consult your Diabetologist.
I hope this gives you initial message.
Dr. Nishikant Shrotri
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