The Discovery Of Gestational Diabetes

Gestational diabetes was officially declared a disease in 1979 when the First International Workshop-Conference on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus met. They decided that gestational diabetes was a sufficient health risk that merited immediate treatment.

It was felt that sheltering the disease under the umbrella of ‘diabetes’ would make people aware of its gravity and insurance companies more likely to cover the disease for treatment.

As far back as 1826 there have been references to diabetic-like conditions during pregnancy which mysteriously seemed to disappear after delivery. But in the 1940s and 50s, the thinking seemed to become somewhat muddled. The concept gained credence that lesser degrees of hyperglycemia might negatively affect a pregnancy.

In 1954 the Belgian researcher J.P. Hoet published a study called Carbohydrate Metabolism during Pregnancy, in which he first coined the name ‘metagestational diabetes’. His findings triggered off a series of studies in the following two decades. In 1967, Jorgen Pedersen first used the term ‘gestational diabetes’ which remains till today.

In Boston, in 1964, O’Sullivan and Mahan showed that higher blood glucose values in pregnancy correlated with the development of diabetes later in life. This appears to be a landmark and the start of a new beginning in exploring the effects of reduced glucose tolerance during pregnancy. But their finding had been plagued with controversy.

In October 1979, at the First International Workshop Conference on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus in Chicago, Gestational Diabetes as an official clinical entity was born. Today there is still controversy about the disease though the diagnosis is well-established and non-controversial.

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The Discovery Of Gestational Diabetes