High blood pressure (not pregnancy related)

[LoolaBear]

So i have recently being diagnosed with hypertension.
I also have high cholesterol that i am currently taking statins for but i am also adjusting my diet so that i can come off the statins.

Thing is I am on ACE inhibitors for my high BP and i am on the highest dose you can take of them and my BP is still high (last home reading last night being 168/101!)

now my kidneys are fine and i'm being referred to a cardiologist as the Dr is worried that i may have an underlying heart condition causing my high BP as she thinks i am too young to be affected by it even with hereditary factors (knowing that it didnt affect my family members who suffer from it until their mid-late 30's and im only 27)

I think the only thing i am worried about is being advised not to have anymroe children. My BP started creeping up Jun 2012 and it wasn't picked up until i moved dr's surgery Jul/Aug 2013.

really all i'm asking is there anyone else that has Hypertension. someone i could talk to maybe. I'm back at the dr's tomorrow and i'm guessing she will take me off the tablets im on now and try something different (currently on 10mg ramipril)

argh i just don't know what ot think or how to feel

 

[Dinah93]

Hi there, I've had high bp with no cause since I was 17, now 28. I haven't been told no more children, and that's despite a mess of a pregnancy with bp at 140/100-188/132 for 6 months before she was born 12 weeks early due to pre-e and HELLP. essential hypertension does raise the risk of pregnancy complications, but by no means guarantees them. My best friend is like me in her late 20s, high bp, and she just had a little boy yesterday at 8 days overdue with nothing but a low dose antihypertensive throughout, whereas I was on max dose of all of them! You're doing the best thing you can be loosing weight, often that will bring it down as your body is still pushing blood through arteries designed for someone 2 or 3 stone heavier, so if you loose weight quite quickly your bp comes down. Unfortunately after a couple of years year vessels relax and grow used to your new size and your bp can go up again. Ofc weight isn't always the issue, when I was diagnosed I had a bmi of 19, and its still only 22 now, so they really can't use the usual 'well you're overweight' excuse to explain it all away! It's well worth getting all the tests done, but be aware they don't find a cause for nearly 3/4 of high bp cases in the under 30s, they keep getting my hopes up with one, but it never seems to be the case!

 

[LoolaBear]

thank you so much for your reply. it means alot to me.

I am still waiting for my referral to come through from the cardiologist but other than heart i have all sorts of tests done already. I also had a very high urine albumin level which leads my GP into thinking it's my heart as the two main causes for high albumin is kidneys or cardiovascular. all bloods for my kidneys have come back good.

I still sit and think that if i didn't move GP surgery i would still be sat here thinking that there is nothing wrong as i didnt know about my high BP until i moved and had my registration medical done!

In the past couple of months i hae had so many blood test i feel like the blood is being sucked out of me!

My thyroid also seems to be slowly de-activating itself (very strong family history, basically been told its not a case of if my thyroid becomes hypo its a case of when) but unfortunately i have to wait for my levels to be 'out of range' before they can treat me for it.

I'm hoping to at least be medicated to the point of normal BP before TTC and hoping that that will be soon.

 

[LoolaBear]

can i be cheeky and ask what medication you're on now?

I've been taking Ramipril 10mg for just over a month and today have been prescribed Doxazosin 1mg to take with it as my BP at my appointment today was 172/103. I've read ramipril shouldn't be taken during pregnancy or whilst breast feeding (which is another thing i want to do next time) but the doxazosin is at Dr's dexcretion if they feel the benefits of taking it out weigh the risks.

GP did inform me today though that once i see the cardiologist they may completely change my course of treatment!

 

[Dinah93]

I'm not actually on anything right now. My bp has been bobbing around at about 150/110 for the last 6 months, but they didn't want to put me on anything until they had the results of the kidney MRI. Bizarely since falling pregnant my bp has taken a bit of a nose dive and is now at about 130/86 which is very low for me. With my first pregnancy it shot up by about 30 points at week 6, so its very odd to me that this time its dropped, but I'm praying it means things might go better this time. Last pregnancy I was on Methyldopa (Aldomet) 1g 3x daily, (max dose), labetalol 800mg 3x daily (max dose) and nifedipine 60mg 2x daily (max dose) by 27 weeks, I still developed pre-e and HELLP as I just didn't seem to respond to anything and there were no other safe medications they could put me on.

 

[LoolaBear]

thank you again for your reply it really means a lot to me.

That's good that your BP has actually gone down this time round. fingers crossed it stays down and healthy for you for the rest of your pregnancy, or stays down with as very little treatment needed as possible.

I'm currently not repsonding to treatment but hopefully after seeing a cardiologist this might change. I am going to see if i can trial the medications that are safe during pregnancy now to see if they can help reduse my BP, then if they can i will already be on the safest ones before falling pregnant.

 

[Dinah93]

Just be aware they might say no. I suggested this and they said they would rather swap me when I found out I was expecting, as none of them are the most effective things I can be on. Methyldopa gets less effective the longer you're on it so can only be used for about 6 months as well. Labetalol is now the first line medication they try in pregnancy, but unless you're trying now or as soon as you're on it I wouldn't expect them to use it.

 

[LoolaBear]

ok thank you. now i know that i might just leave it and wait to see what the cardiologist says.
We aren't planning on TTC until my BP is under control so that i can relax a bit about my health and i want to loose more weight first as well.