i can't believe i made it to the 2nd trimester.. anyways.. have any of you ever had whitecoat hypertension??
i had this years ago when i lived in Brisbane (male Doctor) but i also suffered from anxiety attacks until i went on medication.
anyways.. i moved back to NSW and now have a female doctor, surprise, surprise, i didn't have whitecoat hypertension, but i was on medication for my anxiety..
now to really confuse the situation, i am off my medication (for this pregnancy) and I had a male ob at my first appointment (very, very nice dr).. and surprise, surprise, i had whitecoat hypertension...
I just feel absolutely stupid when this happens and I'm sure the ob thinks i'm some kind of freak.. but how can i tell if its the male doc thing or the anxiety thing??
I have absolutely nothing to be anxious about and i just can't seem to calm down when i first get into the doctors office... it is very embarrasing..
my first check of bp was 150/95... then i told him it could be the whitecoat bp...
about 10 mins later he checked again and it was 120/85.
how can i stop this embarrasing thing happening.. i feel like the biggest freak...
During one of my appointments in my last trimester I had really high BP and they called that whitecoat hypertension. I still say it was a dodgy BP Machine, as it never happened before and has never happened since
Can you go to the chemist and have your BP taken, just to see the comparison. No doctors in sight, and just do it on the spur of the moment, like out shopping, so no planning will be involved.
Yup, I've had it too! At my first appt with DD. They made me come back the next week to see one of the obs (was going through the midwives clinic) but it was fine and remained fine after that.
So you're not a freak at all. Perhaps when you become more comfortable with him it won't happen anymore?
The thing about anxiety is that the body learns very quickly and forms a habit from a particular set of circumstances. I couldn't say if it is just a natural reaction to a stressful situation or if it is the learned body response to a particular set of conditions, and then each time come to fear those circumstances and responses.
I have had some anxiety/panic attacks recently and found that I can create the anxiety just by thinking about previous attacks - a vicious circle when all you want is to not have an attack.
I was PLAGUED by this during PG. I am so scared of hossie, and it was sky-high (once, when i was post-dates and in for daycare monitoring, for, ironically, high BP, it was 165/107!) but they kept me pretty calm, and did them with an automatic machine spaced out over an hour while i had a CTG done and a cup of tea. I was always back somewhere near normal by the time i was done.
I was really worried about it (which made it worse) as i was hoping to homebirth and they wouldn't let me if my BP was too high. Luckily i managed it with some advice from my XP's cousin, who is a midwife. SHe said to have a warm bath before the appointment, and eat a bar of chocolate on the way in (as it releases endorphins which lower BP). While they're doing it imagine yourself in a safe place, breathe deeply and imagine warm sun on your skin and a nice sound (waves/birds etc.). By the very end of PG when this wasn't working anymore (i just couldn't get a grip of myself) i took my mp3 player and listened to Air and other soothing music and all worked out ok.
i will try to keep all that in mind next time i go to ob office
it is just very embarrasing to have to explain each time i get bp checked that i suffer from this and i know that they don't have all day to wait for me to calm down.
I know how you feel!
Almost everytime I go into the ANC and have my BP taken, Its always on the high side. Then its taken again within minutes and its perfectly fine.
I am a bigger girl too, so I now request that they use a bigger cuff, adn I try and breathe nice and slowly as they are taking my BP. the larger cuff doesnt hurt as much, and by me concentrating on my breathing, I don't think too much about the BP. It has been really good the last few times I have been in. The best readings I have had, even better than before I was preggers!
Try not to think about the cuff and what the doc are doing at the time. I really find concentrating on my breathing helps me heaps!
Hope you fidn something that works for you. I'm sure your docs see it regularly anyway
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Whitecoat Hypertension
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