diff --git a/src/gmpy2_convert_gmp.c b/src/gmpy2_convert_gmp.c
index 87c91f2c..f90520b0 100644
--- a/src/gmpy2_convert_gmp.c
+++ b/src/gmpy2_convert_gmp.c
@@ -128,14 +128,15 @@ GMPy_MPZ_From_PyFloat(PyObject *obj, CTXT_Object *context)
 static PyObject *
 GMPy_PyLong_From_MPZ(MPZ_Object *obj, CTXT_Object *context)
 {
-    int negative;
-    size_t count, size;
-    PyLongObject *result;
+    if (mpz_fits_slong_p(obj->z)) {
+        return PyLong_FromLong(mpz_get_si(obj->z));
+    }
 
     /* Assume gmp uses limbs as least as large as the builtin longs do */
 
-    negative = mpz_sgn(obj->z) < 0;
-    size = (mpz_sizeinbase(obj->z, 2) + PyLong_SHIFT - 1) / PyLong_SHIFT;
+    size_t count, size = (mpz_sizeinbase(obj->z, 2) +
+                          PyLong_SHIFT - 1) / PyLong_SHIFT;
+    PyLongObject *result;
 
     if (!(result = _PyLong_New(size))) {
         /* LCOV_EXCL_START */
@@ -146,17 +147,11 @@ GMPy_PyLong_From_MPZ(MPZ_Object *obj, CTXT_Object *context)
     mpz_export(GET_OB_DIGIT(result), &count, -1, sizeof(digit), 0,
                sizeof(digit)*8 - PyLong_SHIFT, obj->z);
 
-    if (count == 0) {
-        GET_OB_DIGIT(result)[0] = 0;
-    }
-
-    /* long_normalize() is file-static so we must reimplement it */
-    /* longobjp = long_normalize(longobjp); */
-    while ((size>0) && (GET_OB_DIGIT(result)[size-1] == 0)) {
-        size--;
+    for (size_t i = count; i < size; i++) {
+        GET_OB_DIGIT(result)[i] = 0;
     }
+    _PyLong_SetSignAndDigitCount(result, mpz_sgn(obj->z) < 0, count);
 
-    _PyLong_SetSignAndDigitCount(result, negative, size);
     return (PyObject*)result;
 }
 
diff --git a/test/test_mpz.py b/test/test_mpz.py
index dfaea66a..0b499e69 100644
--- a/test/test_mpz.py
+++ b/test/test_mpz.py
@@ -322,6 +322,8 @@ def test_mpz_conversion():
 
     assert int(mpz(-3)) == -3
 
+    assert int(mpz(11)) is int(mpz(11))
+
 
 def test_mpz_create():
     assert mpz() == mpz(0)