“How long is a oral glucose tolerance test?”
I'm 35, and I'm going to have an oral glucose tolerance test next week. How long should I expect this to last?
2 Answers
2 or 3 hours according to which one your doctor chooses to order. The 5-hour ones should not be done for any reason.
The standard time for an OGTT is 3 hours, but it could be longer. Why are you getting it? If for diabetes, only the 2 hr. value is used for diagnosis so only a 2 hr. test is needed. If they are looking for low blood sugar (hypo-glycemia), the a 5 hour OGTT is needed since the hypoglycemia is usually seen toward the end of the test. In my practice, I rarely do an OGTT since it is time consuming, expensive, and gives little information that I can get by other tests less traumatic, less expensive & less time consuming. Question your Dr. as to why it is being done.
