Insulin has long been the drug of choice for treating women diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy, also known as Gestational Diabetes. But oral medications are less expensive, more convenient to store and use, and less likely to cause low Blood Sugar. According to a report published in the journal Acta Medica Iran, Glyburide, or glibenclamide, could be an effective alternative to insulin for treating the condition.

Researchers at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Shahid University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, compared the use of insulin with that of Glyburide for high Blood Sugar Levels in Gestational diabetes.

A total of 96 women between 18 and 45 years of age diagnosed with diabetes during their pregnancy, were included in the study. They were randomly assigned to be treated with either insulin or Glyburide. At the time of admission, both groups had about the same blood sugar level…

• it took the women in the insulin group an average of about 28 days to normalize their blood sugar levels.
• the pregnant women in the Glyburide group took about 22 days.

Both groups had about the same amount of time between beginning treatment and delivery. No statistically significant differences were seen in mothers or babies in both groups.

From the above information it was concluded Gestational diabetes could be safely controlled with Glyburide alone.

The journal Current Pharmacology and Biotechnology 2014, published a paper from the Medical University of Lublin in Lublin, Poland. The researchers evaluated how safe Glyburide is in pregnancy. Glyburide is classified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a category C drug. Category C drugs have shown problems in pregnant animal studies, but there are no conclusive studies of their safety in human pregnancy. The FDA does not approve of the drug for use in pregnancy, but the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) does. More studies are needed to learn how the placenta handles the drug and whether it can be harmful if it crosses the placenta from the mother’s blood to the fetus.

Common side effects of Glyburide can include…

• nausea,
• vomiting,
• heartburn or feeling of stomach fullness,
• blurred vision,
• mild rash or redness,
• muscle pain, or
• joint pain.

More serious side effects include…

• unusual bleeding and/or bruising,
• severe weakness,
• chills or fever,
• sore throat,
• sores in the mouth,
• difficulty swallowing,
• red or swollen gums,
• liver disease, and
• low levels of sodium in the blood.

Any signs or symptoms should be reported to the pregnant woman’s doctor.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.

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