Without going into the whole long story of it, my blood pressure shot up in April of this year. It was very high. It had been monitored up to February, including two via two pre-ops and during visits to the nurse at surgery. So when I say 'shot up', I mean it was fine, then suddenly it wasn't.
I have a really supportive nurse at the surgery, and we've tried lots of different BP medications, most of which I've been unable to tolerate - they've produced a hacking cough, bleeding gums, GERD, unusually high heart rates, etc. I'm on ARBs now and things seem to be going in the right direction, although I'm still getting readings of 147/100, which isn't good. Medication upped again yesterday.
The funny thing is, no one can quite work out where this increased BP has come from. The only viable explanation appeared to be that it was workplace stress, but that never quite fitted, partly because I'm now at a stage where the stress has decreased, and partly because my life overall has been incredibly stressful since forever, e.g. my son was born with a highly volatile condition 26 years ago and is disabled. The only explanation available, therefore, was that this was chronic stress, and it had finally broken through to have a physical symptom.
I changed my lifestyle, cut down on alcohol, started going to the gym 2 - 3 times a week, got all my Fitbit steps in, drank the daily recommended amount of water, ensured I was sleeping enough ... in six months this had made no difference either to my BP or my weight.
So yesterday at my appointment we discussed my Mirena coil. Renewed in February of this year as part of my HRT (I'm no longer on the oestrogen patches). It replaced a four year old Mirena prescribed for heavy periods. In short form, the nurse thinks it might be the coil that's causing the issue. My body is behaving as if it's subject to chronic stress. It seems have an awful lot of cortisol floating about - which would account for lack of weight loss even on a calorie restricted diet with substantial additional exercise and the sudden rise in BP. I read recently how synthesised progestin can cause this and, it would appear, the nurse is also aware. For me, the next steps are to find out where I am in the menopause through a blood test and then think about whether we want to keep the Mirena - if I'm peri, it might still be doing the job of preventing excessive bleeding.
Thoughts?
