How to Get Diagnosed

If you or anyone you know is showing signs or symptoms of mate huka (diabetes), please seek medical advice as soon as possible. Once someone has symptoms, they may become very sick very quickly. 

Go straight to the doctor who will arrange to start testing for diabetes. There are a number of ways that diabetes is tested: 

Finger-prick blood glucose test: A quick and simple finger-prick test will tell a GP if blood sugar is high. 

Diagnostic blood test: If the initial finger-prick test indicates high blood sugar, the GP will ask you to have a blood test to diagnose diabetes as well as determine what type of diabetes it is.  

Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT): The person may need to do a test called an oral glucose tolerance test. This involves drinking a sweet liquid and then checking glucose levels in the blood afterwards. 

You’ll usually get the results of your blood test back in a few days. If you have symptoms that come quickly and  have needed to be taken into hospital, the results should come back in an hour or two. If a diabetes diagnosis is confirmed, a doctor will make a referral to a specialist diabetes team for tamariki and rangatahi.   

It is important you know that a diabetes diagnosis is no one’s fault. There are many reasons why some young people are more likely to get mate huka than other young people.