Funny Turns About 15 Mins After Shower

[fionas]

A couple of times lately, I've felt faint about 15 mins after a shower. We were in the car today and I got sweaty and am pretty sure if I hadn't already been sitting down and could recline the seat, I would have blacked out.

Is this a blood pressure thing? Mine is always fine. I take iron supplements but was borderline GD last time and haven't done the test this time yet.

[ss_storm]

I remember I used to get that sometimes, if I'd been under the warm shower for too long I'd feel really sick when I got out and like I wanted to pass out. Not a nice feeling at all! Could be low BP or low blood sugar, do you feel dizzy as well? Or it could just be from the warmth in the bathroom? I dunno...

[Lisa]

I got that so much through my last 2 pregnancies. I always had to have a bottle of water on hand as I found that otherwise I would feel awful. I would have cold water waiting for me in my room for when I got out of the shower and I always made sure I put my feet up for about 1/2hr after a shower... it was a PITA but it worked for me.

[Alan]

Hi Fionas
This is not unusual and not very pleasant. It is usually a blood pressure problem and also related to your bump and the increase number of blood vessels. Your blood volume can increase by as much as 80%. Your heart has to work harder to pump all this blood around your body. Your heart has to push blood uphill to get the oxygen to your brain, as you can imagine this is hard work. If the blood to your brain is reduced for even a second or two you can pass out or feel like you are going to.
So what happens after a shower?
When you have had a shower your body is nice and warm. Unfortunately your body wants to cool it down. It does this by opening, as wide as possible, all the small blood vessels that are close to the surface of the skin. Now usually a lot of these blood vessels are usually only partly open. When these vessels open a lot more blood rushes into them leaving the brain short of blood. It only takes a couple of seconds for your heart to increase its workload but it is this couple of seconds that make you feel faint.

[fionas]

Thanks guys - Alan that makes sense. I just find it strange that it doesn't happen straight away - usually about 15 to 20 minutes later. Luckily, a different health condition means that I can't walk far so am effectively housebound unless I'm out in the car with DP. So at least I'm never on my own about to hit the kerb when it happens because that would be really scary!

[Sagres]

I remember getting this, but maybe only 5 minutes after the shower? I had quite a few moments where I was VERY VERY close to fainting, not all after the shower though so I didn't think the shower was the sole cause, but merely one of the various things that made me feel a bit dodgy. I mentioned it to my ob but all the things they test routinely were fine (iron/sugar levels, blood pressure) so we never found a cause - I was just unlucky? Anyway it is worth getting it checked out just to be sure.