Insulin - Pregnancy

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Insulin

Insulin is not really a pregnancy hormone so to speak, but it is an important hormone in your body which is affected by pregnancy.

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Insulin levels must be controlled during your pregnancy

Insulin is produced by your pancreas and causes liver, muscle and fat tissue cells to take up glucose from your blood, an important aspect of managing your metabolism. In fact, during pregnancy insulin is important for not only your metabolism, but also your baby’s. This means insulin levels must be controlled during pregnancy for the health of you and your baby. If your body does not absorb enough insulin during pregnancy you may develop gestational diabetes.

Insulin is involved in a very tricky two-step with the pregnancy hormone hPL. hPL inhibits the ability of your cells to take up insulin and can cause gestational diabetes between week 20 and week 24 of pregnancy if your pancreas does not release enough insulin to equal out hPL’s insulin inhibition activity. As long as you don’t develop gestational diabetes, you should not experience any pregnancy symptoms associated with insulin.

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