High cortisol blood test help

[Lou780]

Can anyone help or offer advice please. My dd suffers bad anxiety. She feels sick leaving the house etc. She had a blood test days ago for another conditionand results came back with high cortisol levels.. 900 instead of 500.
Iam beside myself worrying.. Doctor suggested cusjings and she needs to back for another test. She is 20. She wS extremely anxious whilst having test and they struggled to get blood.. She was hot and nearly fainting during test.. Could this have effected result?

[risefromyourgrave]

Could she ask for a saliva test instead? I imagine this would be less stressful.

[nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut]

Cortisol is a stress hormone. If she has anxiety I'm not surprised it was high.

[Lou780]

But would the stress raise the levels to be almost double what they should be?

[nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut]

The stress of a blood test? No not on its own, I wouldn't think but if she has severe long term, constant anxiety, I imagine that probably could over time.

[Jubaju]

They can do stress free tests, they set up the Canula and let you go lie down for half and hour then take your blood later. Might be helpful if the repeat the tests

[chocolateisavegetable]

Any suggestion of trying her on beta blockers for the anxiety? They should also try testing cortisol levels at different times of the day, which they can do with spit tests.

[Lou780]

She is on citalopram for her anxiety and the birth control pill. She suffers from ibs too.. Which is brought on by her anxiety.

[nothingcanhurtmewithmyeyesshut]

I would have thought they would try her on beta blockers rather than leave her to suffer waiting for the citalopram to start working.

[chocolateisavegetable]

Unless there are medical reasons why beta blockers wouldn't be a good idea for her (e.g. asthma), I really would ask for them. DD recently started taking them and she says she can feel the anxiety draining out of her body when she takes one. That would at least give her some quality of life until they do more tests and find out what's going on with the cortisol levels.

[Loopylou6]

Yes I agree with the above poster, tell her to ask for propranolol, they're fab