Last Updated on November 1, 2026 by Sierra Richard

Disclaimer: This post shares my personal experience as a pregnant patient and is not medical advice. Always follow your own provider’s instructions and talk with them about any questions. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

If you are anything like me, you have heard horror stories of what the glucose screening test actually entails. And if you saw it on your schedule and you’re worried about how the drink tastes or worried about getting sick, you are not alone. In this post, I’m sharing my 1 hour glucose test experience: what it was like for me to get the actual glucose screening, how long it took, and what my experience was like from start to finish.

I do want to preface this by saying that I am a pharmacist, and I have worked in women’s health before, but this is my own personal experience. This is not medical advice. So make sure that you follow your own provider’s instructions and reach out to them if you have any questions.

The short answer: My 1 hour glucose test was non-fasting. I drank an 8 ounce, 50 gram sugar drink in about a minute, waited one hour, and had my blood drawn. I felt a little nauseous and salty-snack hungry at the end, and had my results in about 5 hours, and passed.

What Is the Glucose Screening Test in Pregnancy?

The glucose screening is a test to determine whether or not you might potentially have gestational diabetes. The screening itself, which is the first test that you will likely take, is not going to diagnose you with gestational diabetes. There are other tests that happen afterwards.

What usually happens is that around 24 to 28 weeks, you go in and do what they call a glucose challenge test. I was at 24 weeks when I had the test done myself.

Most places do a one hour challenge. There is the option of doing a two hour fasting test, but that’s not what I did. For me, it was a one hour glucose challenge, and it was non-fasting.

If your results come back high, meaning your blood sugar was high after that challenge test, then you would go back and do a three hour test. That one is fasting, you drink 100 grams of glucose instead of 50 grams, and then you wait three hours. This is the one where most people, if they’re going to feel nauseous or sick or bad, will experience these adverse effects.

Why the Glucose Screening Matters

Whether you choose to do the glucose challenge test or another version (there are other things providers can do to look at this, this is just the most common), getting some sort of testing done matters so much. Gestational diabetes can have very major effects on both you and baby, and catching it early can help it be managed.

I used to work at a women’s and children’s hospital, and the thing I would most likely see in babies born to someone with untreated or poorly controlled gestational diabetes was that the baby would become hypoglycemic, or have very low blood sugar, after they’re born. These babies may also be larger for their gestational age than other babies with a similar due date.

There are other risks associated with gestational diabetes for mom as well, not just during the pregnancy but after the pregnancy, because it does increase the risk for other types of diabetes. That doesn’t mean gestational diabetes sticks around after you give birth. It is very much centered around the placenta and the hormones released by the placenta.

Gestational diabetes does not mean that you have done something wrong. If you end up getting that diagnosis, it just means that your body needs a little extra help managing your blood sugar while pregnant.

Before My 1 Hour Glucose Test

Before my visit, I was told to come in at my normal appointment time and eat whatever I wanted. They did recommend not eating a bunch of candy right before I walked in or drinking a super sugary soda, because that can affect the results.

My appointment was in the afternoon, around 3:50 pm. I had eaten lunch, and then I had a snack in the afternoon because I usually need something every couple of hours or I don’t feel the greatest. That is a recommendation from my provider due to some of my own medical issues.

I had my snack about an hour and a half or so before I took the test. It did have sugar and carbs in it, which is what the glucose challenge test is looking at, but it wasn’t something super high in carbs. My lunch was a different story. I had a shrimp burrito bowl with rice, and that rice has a lot of carbs in it. It was just what was available in the cafeteria at the hospital where I worked, so it is what it is. I came in eating like I normally do, which was the recommendation from my provider.

I’m not one who drinks a ton of sugary drinks. I occasionally have one here and there, but I normally drink water or sparkling water, so I stuck with that which was my norm.

What I Was Nervous About

I was definitely worried that I wasn’t going to pass, that I would get a screening result showing I might have gestational diabetes.

But I was also worried the drink would make me nauseous. I had only had a little bit of a snack, so it was mostly an empty stomach, and I get nauseous pretty easily and have experienced more nausea throughout pregnancy. I was a little worried that chugging down this drink was going to cause that.

I had asked some coworkers which drink flavor to pick. They told me that if you do the lemon lime, it tastes like flat Sprite, and if you do the orange, it tastes like flat orange soda. Orange soda had been a pregnancy craving for me, and I also love Sprite, so I wasn’t glad to hear either of those. If I got sick, I figured I wasn’t going to want either one for a while. 

What I Brought

• My water bottle (AD)
• A book
• A plan to get a snack afterwards

My mindset going in was just, I’m going to do the best that I can.

During the Visit: The Glucose Drink and the Wait

I checked into my appointment like normal. They asked me if I still wanted to do the test, because if I wasn’t feeling up to it, I could postpone it to my next appointment. I told them I wanted to do it today. Let’s get this over with.

Picking a Flavor

They gave me the option of three different flavors, which was very exciting: fruit punch, orange, or lemon lime. Since I was a little timid about the orange and the lemon lime, I went with fruit punch. My thought process was that if the other two tasted like flat soda, then fruit punch doesn’t have carbonation in the first place, so it should taste good and just taste like punch, right?

What the Glucose Drink Tasted Like

They gave it to me cold, which was super nice of them. They told me I had five minutes to finish it. It was 8 ounces with 50 grams of sugar in it, and I basically gulped it down in two drinks. I chugged about half of it, took a little breather, and chugged the other half. It only took me about a minute.

It honestly tasted like Hawaiian Punch to me. That level of sweetness. Hawaiian Punch is super sweet, and I prefer it with a little bit of water or with ice cubes in it to dilute it a little bit. This tasted like an undiluted punch!

The One Hour Wait

They told me to mark down what time I finished the drink, and my blood draw would be one hour from that time. Then I went through my regular appointment. I’m at the point that most of my visits are very quick, thankfully, so I was only in there for about 15 minutes.

After that, I checked in at blood draw and sat down with my book and read while I waited for the hour to be up. I went to the bathroom a couple of times, just normal pregnancy things. I would say I felt a little nauseous toward the end, and I started craving salt, like a lot of salt.

Then they did my blood draw. They had to do some other labs for me too, so they took quite a bit of blood.

After the Glucose Test: My Results

How Long Glucose Test Results Took

By that evening, it only took about 4 or 5 hours, my results came back and I could see them in my patient portal before my physician reached out to me. Not that I recommend doing that, but I am very nosy. So I looked after eating dinner.

My glucose was 125, which was below the cutoff at my institution. The cutoff for moving on to the next step varies between places, somewhere in the 130 to 140 range, but mine was below that.

I did wait to confirm that with my physician, who messaged me the next day and said I was all good on my glucose screening. So I got the all clear. If I hadn’t, I would have been going back for that three hour test.

I felt a huge sense of relief knowing that this is one pregnancy complication that I do not have this go around, which was great news. I love to hear that.

My Tips for Your 1 Hour Glucose Test

I think I would do a lot of things the same next time. Here’s what I’d recommend:

1. Bring something to do. Whether you’re going to scroll on your phone or be like me and read a book, have something ready to go to entertain you during that time.
2. Consider an afternoon appointment if your test is non-fasting. I liked that I did it in the afternoon, so I had something on my stomach and was eating like my norm. I don’t think I would have liked one of my super early appointments for this.
3. Know the rules ahead of time. Find out if you’re fasting or not, which test you’re getting, and how long you’re going to have to wait so you can make sure you have everything.
4. Schedule appropriately. Plan accordingly based on your test for childcare, work, or whatever it may be.
5. Ask how you’re going to get your results. If you don’t have a patient portal like my hospital does, how are you going to find out? Are they going to call you, text you, or something else?

Overall: Was the Glucose Test as Bad as I Expected?

Overall, for me this was a positive pregnancy experience. Nobody wants to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes after chugging a bunch of sugar. However, it was a great experience in the sense that I wasn’t super sick, I got the answers quickly, and thankfully for me, this is one pregnancy complication that I don’t have to deal with.

If you are new here, I have an entire maternity category here on my blog where I talk about things that I went through during my pregnancy: things I liked, things I didn’t like, things I used, and how they worked out for me. If you’re interested in that, make sure you check out the rest of my maternity posts.

Best of luck to you with your pregnancy!

Frequently Asked Questions About the 1 Hour Glucose Test