How is diabetes diagnosed?

There are a few different ways that your healthcare professional can diagnose you with diabetes.

One of these ways is a blood test which is sent to the laboratory to measure the blood glucose levels. If this blood glucose level is of a value greater than or equal to 11.1 mmol/L (or 7 mmol/L if you were asked to fast beforehand) then this is a positive result for diabetes.

Another way diabetes can be diagnosed is through a procedure known as an oral glucose tolerance test or OGTT. This is a procedure in which you will have been asked to drink a drink containing glucose and have a blood test two hours afterwards. This will test how your body responds to glucose. In people with diabetes, this glucose drink will cause their blood glucose levels to remain high as it is unable to move into the bodies cells where it is needed.

Receiving a diagnosis of diabetes can be a difficult time for many. In the video below people with type 2 diabetes share how they were diagnosed and how they felt about it.

HbA1c

HbA1c is a blood test which is used to give a person’s average blood glucose reading over the past 3 months. It analyses how much glucose is attached to your haemoglobin (the protein molecule in the blood that carries oxygen). If this reading is greater than 48 mmol/mol then this can be diagnostic of diabetes.