Does anyone know if hormones affect blood pressure, causing it to go up... way up? After dealing with this my whole life, it seems to have gotten worse in the last few years, especially during anxiety, which is understandable. However, even when I'm not feeling particularly stressed, it can read very high.

I've been on Coreg 6.25 since February when I was hospitalized for High Blood Pressure and it seemed to have been working quite well the first several months with average readings around 130's/90's, which is excellent for me - I've also read that as we age, our pressures do tend to go up anyway. I was very pleased with these readings, as was my doc.

I decided to start keeping an eye on the numbers again and they are way up there, even during resting. Called my doc and he said to 'up' the meds to twice what I'm already on, plus wean myself off the Xanax as this might be contributing to the high readings. Huh?!!! My family is cringing as they prepare to endure, yet, another adjustment to these meds!

I guess my question is: Have any of you noticed your pressure readings go up since your hormones have begun to change?
Is there a link somewhere?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

gyz

I have absolutely have had my reading fluctuate horribly since all this change started. Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's not....but usually only in the dr's office as I have my own cuff at home. I was just in the ER and it ranged from 147/77 (when they first hooked me up) to 117/72 and then the last 2 were 125/52. I take xanax too and had taken it a few hours before going to the ER as I was so freaking anxious over the heart palps. Last Friday in the Dr's office it was 126/74 or something like that and I was on more xanax than the ER. I've had a reading as high as 150/108 over 3 years ago in the dr's office too.

Maybe changing the meds will help if it doesn't come down after you up your med. Do you suffer from the medication...side effects I mean?

Hugs,
Karen

I was getting ready to start a thread on this topic when I saw your post !

All my life I have always had low, low blood pressure. This is quite common for the women in my family and even my daughter's pressure usually runs around 95/58. Such low reading was quite common for me until the year 2002 when I was shoved onto this perimenopausal rollercoaster ride. I am currently on two (Diovan & Toprol XL) different blood pressure medications trying to stablize my pressure. I was originally using only Lisinopril, but after an allergic reaction I was told not to use any ACE Inhibitor class of bp medications. So I've been trying different bp medications trying to find a combination or hopefully one brand that will work continually. Why am I not able to keep my bp constantly stablized throughout the day? Why is it spiking a various times?

For many months my bp was stablilized then the end of last year I ended up in the hospital because my bp kept spiking. Well, after adding compounding hormones my bp stablized again. Well, within the last couple of weeks I've began having multiple hot flashes within an hour, extremely irregular period with spotting that last for weeks. Last night the anxiety returned. I took my bp and it was 150/101. I took my nightly bp med. which bought my pressure down, but then this morning upon waking it was 145/95. So now my doctor is adding a third bp medication to the cocktail. I believe that I need to also tweak my compounded hormones or maybe try the Estrogel.

I didn't mean for this post to be so long, but hopefully this info. might be helpful. I would like to know what bp medication is working for other ladies and does it keep your bp stabilized all day.

I surely wish you health .

Kar - Seems like any b/p med I begin for the first time causes side effects, but the Coreg only took me about a month and a half to get used to it and then I was good to go. I've been on more meds for this in the last 5 years than I care to remember! The Lisinopril was the worst. Side effects lasted the entire time I was on it! I don't think upping the dosage will be hard to get used to, just as long as I spread out the pills throughout the day for a while.

Are you feeling better now, Kar? Considering what you were going through in the ER (and what led up to you going in the first place), your readings were pretty good, I think. I've had those palps before and they do cause so much anxiety, I'm really surprised your pressure wasn't much higher. Oh, I think you did mention Xanax, though. I have taken X before going to the doc and it didn't help that much. Anyway, have you followed up with your doctor and if so, what does he say? Keep us posted on how you're doing, too!!



Faith - I understand your anxiety from the readings! Seems like just looking at that b/p cuff causes mine to spike!! I've not found anything that's helped stabilize my pressure at this point in time. I thought the Coreg was doing a fairly good job at it, even though there was quite a large spacing from the systolic to diastolic (say, 155/72) which I've never had before, but after last night (weird that we were both going through the same thing at the same time last night, huh?!) I'm beginning to wonder.

I'm just so tired of this thing taking me for such a wild ride! My b/p would be great all the time if I just laid on the couch, stayed away from people and stresses, but who can do that?! I don't want to do that. I want to live my life without all this up and down stuff! I hate being controlled by all the 'what if's', especially with this b/p thing cropping up again!



Thanks so much for your replies on this issue! Even though I hate it that you're going through it, too, it is nice to know that I'm not alone here.

Hugs!
gyz

I have been reading about this, I started another thread elsewhere (can't remember where !).

I read that when your estradiol drops (can still be high but dropping rapidly), it triggers a release of norepinephrine which increases your heart rate and raises your BP.

Hello Sandra. I must find the thread that you started about this topic. If the release of norepinephrine causes the increased bp then what can I do to stop this cycle every time my estradiol drops?

OK, I found it:

http://www.power-surge.com/php/forums/inde...showtopic=18671

I don't yet know what can be done to inhibit the norepinephrine release, aside from taking a prescription drug which directly causes this action, like Clonidine. But Clonidine is an anti-hypertensive drug, and if you don't really have high blood pressure I can't imagine it's appropriate for peri or meno. Maybe it is, I don't know.

I am definitely looking for non-prescription drug help because I find the pressure and heart racing to be just as discomforting as the hot flash itself. Sariah and Floater provided some interesting info in that thread, so definitely check it out.

After always have normal-to-low bp, last year it started spiking at the same time I developed anxiety. It took a trip to the ER and some miserable weeks before I realized it was due to the progesterone cream my doc had me on.

After discontinuing it, I felt much better and the bp went back to normal. I found out that P can do this from reading the experiences of women on the Wiley Protocol, which uses high doses of P, which caused some of them to suddenly experience high BP

Seems I always send my post before I finish my thoughts.

I also wanted to say that even though the P was the trigger of my high bp, it's hard to know if it was the P itself, which was too high of a dose, or the fact that my E was already low and the E cream she Rx me was a very low dose, so a high P:E ration could have been the problem. The P exacerbated the low E condition

Sariah - so, you were able to get your pressure back under control without meds?

Sariah, have you ever read about P competing with E for E receptors ? Maybe with higher P and lower E, the net effect was E withdrawal which set off that norepinephrine release ??? Maybe that's the problem I'm having, maybe I should reduce my P a bit.

I always had so called perfect blood pressure 120/80 until perimenopause.

After entering this wonderful stage of my life the readings became higher. They were always higher at my GP's office but

even at home they were much higher than normal.

I was put on metoprolol - 50mg, 2x/day. This still didn't bring it down to normal levels so the doctor added diovan. This

helped a bit but still not enough so diovan was changed to avapro HCT. This immediately (1 week) lowered the numbers to

117/75 with no real noticable side effects. It stayed this way until reaching menopause (even with tons of hot flashes) and

then it began dipping a little too low causing some dizziness and lightheadedness. I was weaned off of the avapro and am now being weaned off of metoprolol.

My blood pressure readings now have never risen above 120/78 so do I believe HBP can be caused by perimenopause? - Absolutely!

It probably is better to take the meds though as HBP can do a lot of damage (usually silently) to your body.

Hope you find something that helps.

Hugs,

Arla.

Arla, I had to take a double look to see who wrote this post because I could have easily written part of this post.

I always had low blood pressure until peri. My doctor had me taking Toprol XL 50mg (same as metoprolol) and Diovan 80mg. Then my bp started fluctuating...which I believe stems from plummeting estrogen. To make a long story short, I was taking Toprol XL 50 mg twice a day and Diovan once daily. This morning I contacted my dr. because my bp was still not within normal range. After taking my bp med. my pressure would drop below the normal range, then a couple hours later it was high again. I took my bp med. before going to bed only to rise in the morning with a reading of 150/101. Soooooooooo...today the dr. added Norvasc 5mg. to the mix.

Did you say that once you reached menopause you no longer needed bp medication? Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!! that sounds so wonderful to me . I'm really trying to shed all this excess weight that I've packed on over the last 10 years of peri. in hope that this would eliminate the need for blood pressure medication, but I'll save that for another thread, lol .

Maybe I'll follow in your foot steps and also not need these 3 bp medications when I'm officially in menopause. I'm praying .

I just had to share this...I've been dealing with hot flashes again for the last couple of weeks along with increased anxiety, mood swings and fluctuating blood pressure.

Today I took my bp while I was having a sweat drenching hot flash and my bp was about 145/101 . I waited until the flashing subsided and I was beginning to feel very cool before I took my bp again. This time the reading was about 125/86!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My goodness, I had no idea that hot flashes could affect my bp so drastically. That would explain why I at times I felt lightheaded and nauseated during a hot flash.

Yes ! I checked my BP last night and had the same type of increase. When I'm not flashing my BP is 120/80 or less, but the top number went up into the 140's when I flashed !

I am glad i read this thread, I have also never had high blood pressure until i started taking the prometrium. Now i get a reading of 135/90 at times. i know it is from the prometrium. i was always 120/76, and it frustrates me so much. I also get whitecoat syndrome now whenever the blood pressure cuff comes out. I worry it will be high and set myself up for a higher reading. i need to get a home cuff so I can check it when i am off the prometrium.

Well, here it is, a couple of days after upping the dosage of bp meds and am feeling crummy, but know that this is just temporary. As far as the readings go, they have come down significantly - from 177/118 (and not even feeling anxiety, until after I saw those numbers) the other night to 135/81 just a little while ago. Of course, I've spent most of the last couple of days laying around so I'm hopeful the numbers will stay down when I resume my normal activities!

It's been interesting to read your posts about this topic. I guess this specific symptom, for lack of a better word, has hit more of us than I realized. I'm not even sure exactly what to think after reading some of your responses and experiences. This has been frustrating, as it seems like it's a vicious cycle - high readings = anxiety and vice versa.

I plan to check into how low estrogen affects b/p - am thinking maybe that's what's happening, I don't know. All my lab work has always come back within the normal range, but then again, I also know that blood work isn't that accurate, either.

Thanks again for your responses. You've all given me much to think about and check into.

By the way, just wondering how many of you are smokers, if you don't mind my asking?

(((hugs)))
gyz

When I was using the pharmacy compounded bio-identical Progesterone cream 3 yrs ago my BP used to spike to about this number also at times along with giving me astronomical anxiety etc (progesterone is supposed to help lower HBP, yeah right). Since stopping the P cream my BP went back to normal which is around 120/70. I also have white coat syndrome now so sometimes my top pressure can spike a little while doctor is taking it usually around 135/70 but last time it was taken in hospital after injuring my lower back it took them 3 attempts to get a reading and it was only 115/74 surprising for the amount of pain I was in.

I just hate that sound of the velcroe and the pumping up of the cuff, sets off a panic attack every time.

Rox

Like everyone posting to this thread .. I am having alot of high blood pressure problems. My doctor prescribed Norvasc .. here is my question .. does anyone know if natural progesterone cream (like the kind that is sold on Dr. Lee's site) can call high blood pressure? My blood pressure had always been normal before menopause .. can this cream affect it?

Thanks to all who might have an answer.

I never had high blood pressure until I started the progesterone cream. That was a hellish time for me, because it also seem to cause serious anxiety in me, so I was in a panic state about the BP, not sleeping, it was awful.

After several weeks of this I researched this online and found a hormone group of women who were harmed by using a popular high-progesterone protocol, and many of them also developed blood pressure problems. I quit the cream and after a week or so bp went back to normal.

I'm now on just Estrogel and it does not affect my bp. Estrogen has a dilating effect on blood vessels which would help to lower bp.

I suggest getting off the P and giving it a week or 2 to see what happens.

Hi all,

I truly am convinced that the Progesterone Cream was changing something in my body that was causing my high blood pressure. I remembered last month when I went off the cream for 7 days my blood pressure lowered on it's own. I resumed the cream and it went back up. So I decided about 3 days ago to go off the cream and see what happened .. it has already started coming down again. This is so crazy!! .. I am so glad I found this group!! .. also, since I stopped using the cream I haven't had any heart palpitations!! .. yippee!!! .. although my little Power Surges have been pretty bad the last couple of days .. other than that I am coping.

If anyone else is having this issue with the blood pressure thing .. please, please let me know ..

Thanks,

Brenda

I definitely think meopause and anxiety spike your BP. I never had BP problems til two years ago. I haven't had a period for 15 months, except for one I had about a month ago. My doctor did an endometrial biopsy, and everything is fine.

But lately my BP has been spiking. First it was low, so we halved my medicine . I was on .25 of Atentolol. Then when I was in for the biopsy, the BP was like 127, but my pulse was only 45. So my doctor had me take half of the .25 tablet. We checked it on the half dose, it and it was 144 over something, and pulse still in the 50s. So, I went back on the full .25.

Then Friday morning, I went back to have it checked again. It was like 160 over 90, pulse about 65. But that morning, before I left for the doctor, I started to feel very jittery and my hands were cold. I felt like crying and like my throat was closing up. I felt very nervous, kind of like how I feel before I have to do something that's scary (like public speaking or fly somewhere I've never been by myself - the origianl scardey cat), and almost a little light headed. I didn't take any Xanax.

The high BP freaked out the nurse, and she contacted my doc, who had me double my med to .50. She really wanted me to go home and put my feet up and relax. I took the extra dose, and went back to work, where I also took half a Xanax. Within an hour I felt much calmer. That evening, when I got home, I took my BP and it was 133 over 70 something.

I think if I had taken the Xanax before getting my BP taken the first time, I would have been fine.

Does an anxiety attack feel like cold hands, etc? I've had some before, but it was the racing heart and feeling of panic.

I wonder if my hormones have plunged since that last, sporadic period, and they just haven't leveled out. I'm seeing my doc again on Thursday to see how I am on the new, higher dose. Maybe I'm not meant to take a beta blocker. This summer we changed it from a diuretc-type BP med, because I felt like I was in the bathroom all the time to pee! But it never spiked like this.

And of course this spiking isn't making me feel any calmer! It scares me to death that it mike spike and I'd have a stroke. I definitely have the white coat syndrome. I'm also feeling really sad that neither of my daughters will be home for Christmas. They are far away and we can't get there and they can't get here. It's the first holiday without either of my children, and I hate it. And work has been very busy, and I have been waking up at 3 or 4 and not able to go back to sleep. I wonder if that's what caused my episode of the jitters the other day.

Any thoughts! Coming to this site is so comforting, and I almost panicked when it was down the last couple days.

WriterMom

Just a followup note. I'm not taking any HRT or supplements except vitamins. Maybe I need some HRT! I am thinking of asking to have my FSH and estrodials tested.

Any thoughts?

Othewise, I usually feel pretty good.

WriterMom

WriterMom,
I also had the spiking bp on and off when I've never had high bp before. I found out it was the hormonal fluctuations causing these episodes, due to low estrogen. Since being on estrogen, I do not have the problem anymore. And when I was using progesterone cream was when it really was bad, since it was exacerbating my already-low estrogen. Doc gave me bp meds, but I refused to take them since most days I would be fine.

Docs should not prescribe bp meds based on isolated readings in their office. They often use poor technique to obtain the reading anyway, not allowing the patient time enough to relax with the cuff already on, not having them sit in a straight-back chair with feet on the floor and the cuff arm resting at heart level on something firm so your arm isn't dangling. And anyway, the patient should be taking their own bp a couple times/day at home over a period of a couple of weeks and keep a record. That is the only way to know if you have sustained high bp. It is so common in peri for bp to be all over the place. You could have a bp of 160/90 one minute, then an hour later it could be 120/78. BP is never static.

And FYI your pressure was not high enough for a stroke, especially since I'm sure it's not that way all the time.

If you still have periods, try to notice if your bp increases at ovulation and up until your period. The surging P at that time, with the low E will often make that happen, along with anxiety and irritability.

Hi Sariah,

Thanks so much for your reassuring words! I think my BP is all over the place. And you're right about taking the BP in the office. The nurse can take it at the beginning of a visit, and it's hight, and the doctor will take it at the end of the visit, and it will have come down at least 20 points.

I haven't felt headachey either, which made me think I wasn't going to have a stroke. And it did come down.

When I see my doctor this coming week, I'm going to ask about having my estrogen levels tested. I'm not having periods anymore. I think mine was brought on by stress, lack of sleep, 2-1/2 glasses of wine the night before, a party with who knows what food that was salty, and not having exercised in 10 days.

I just came back from the gym where I did 45 minutes of water exercises, and I feel mildly sore, but very relaxed. Maybe I should take my BP now!

I just love this web site. I can always get answers and reassurance from ladies who are also going through this.

WriterMom

Writer Mom & Sariah .. I'm with you on the blood pressure issues!! .. I honestly think that my doctor needed to go a little further on this before jumping the gun ..

This is a whole other story .. but I was getting ready to have a breast MRI .. breast enlargement (and now my doctor is telling me this is hormone related too) .. anyway, during the workup for that my blood pressure was high so the hospital wanted me to go to my doctor. When I did .. my blood pressure was high so he immediately bawled me out and said I was stroke level and put me on high blood pressure medicine. When I went back it was lower (136/83) .. I think .. or close to that. So then he put me on another medication. I got online and checked out the side effects and there was some bad such associated with this medicine .. so I didn't take it. I have really, really decided to get myself healthy and have been watching what I eat .. I have lost 12 pounds. I haven't been taking my blood pressure medicine and my blood pressure is 120 something over 70 something every day ..

I love this board but wish I knew more where to start & what to do .. I don't know what to take to get rid of the hot flashes ..

Anyway .. I am convinced that the menopause/progesterone is the cause of my high blood pressure. Now I'm off to research the board a little more .. thanks to all who respond.

Brenda

I am another one who had low blood pressure my whole life. Now I am seeing what is borderline high blood pressure. It always reads higher in the doctors office too. I have a home machine and have seen it fluctuate into the 130s back down to the low 100s. The pulse rate is jumping around too. WTH is this?

I am eating low carb and that brought the bp down to the 100s but it can still spike up there now and then. I'm seeing my doctor soon to ask him why this is going on but I am betting it is my body trying to cope with the hormonal changes that never end. Ugh.

When I started peri that's when my blood pressure went up through the roof. I have taken meds for it now for 14 years and it behaves itself mostly. It does fluctuate, but I think that's due to hormone levels doing the same. Very weird really. My doctor was quite interested in the possible link. Don't know if there's been a medical study on it?? Probably not... that,s my guess. Should be researched properly if you ask me though Thoughts anyone?

Gyz, I never had a blood pressure problem until I started Peri. It would flucuate all the time, especially with my anxiety. then I finally just decided to start on a blood pressure med. Well, mine would always come up at the doctors office also. I never had that "white coat" stuff untill I hit Peri either. So, I would say that is is perfectly normal for blood pressure to be affected by menopause. I have noticed with anxiety is when it usually comes up. Or right before I would start. But since I have not been having many periods anymore, mine has actually been so much better. You will get there girl. Patsy (don't know about the Xanax?)

My bp always ran low until peri hit. (90's over 60's) Ovaries suddenly stopped for 8 months and all heck broke loose. bp went up 130 over 80's with wild variations. Once I started on bhrt, and ovaries restarted, my bp normalized again. Only my vascular doc has any interest in bp and hormones. sigh......

I definitely think there is a link...the last 6 months my blood pressure has started to spike...130's...it has always been normal! Today it was in the 150's at the doctors office. I'm going to purchase a cuff and see how my readings go... I've been experiencing dizziness with the flu for the past week so I'm wondering if that is what spiked it further..not sure and of course the doctor doesn't know either!


TJ