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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Blood pressure always high when GP checks it

37 replies

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 10:55

I have a blood pressure monitor that I use at home and my blood pressure is always about 121 over 80. I’ve checked it on my mum’s one too and get the same reading.

Whenever I go to the GP it’s always about 128 over 93. I suffer from anxiety so could this be what causes it to increase when someone else checks it? Does this happen to anyone else?

OP posts:

Crunchymum · 08/06/2018 10:57

Google White Coat Syndrome.

I have the same problem!!

BevBrook · 08/06/2018 10:57

DH has this and explained it to the GP. They gave him a monitor to use at home, he had to take readings at different times.

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 10:58

I was feeling very stressed when I arrived at the doctors earlier so the white coat syndrome makes sense for the fact my reading was high. I could feel my heart pounding and I was sweating a lot. As soon as I left I felt calm and my heart rate slowed down

OP posts:

Nikephorus · 08/06/2018 10:59

It's the well-known 'white coat effect' - happens to loads of people. My mum's is high anyway but at the doctor's it was absolutely sky high and some (I didn't know it could even go that high).If you're getting the same / similar reading on 2 machines I wouldn't worry. You could always take your machine along to the doctors and try it there - I bet you'd get the same reading as they get and then you'd know it was location and not the machine causing the jump. But seriously, it goes up with non-anxious people so if you chuck in anxiety too.....

BestIsWest · 08/06/2018 10:59

DH always gets the GP to take it twice. It’s always lower the second time. Anxiety.

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 11:01

I have health anxiety so as soon as I saw the high reading I started to worry. The GP didn’t seem concerned though. Anxiety can be a bastard!

OP posts:

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 08/06/2018 11:02

I was going to say white coat hypertension. I assume that's why the GP usually chats to you and does other stuff before finally getting around to taking your BP to give you a chance to relax.

Storminateapot · 08/06/2018 11:05

Yes but much much worse. My GP has now accepted this is the case.

summersmith · 08/06/2018 11:09

Even if a GP does a second reading it's high.

My GP now just accepts the reading I take at home thankfully.

Brieonabagel · 08/06/2018 11:09

Ugh, I have this problem. Years ago the doctors gave me a monitor to do at home for a week. Absolutely fine, they put it down to white coat syndrome. Fast forward 10 years and doctor stops my pill due to my blood pressure being high at the check up. I explained the WCS and that it’s always high at the doctors and she referred me to wear a monitor for 24 hours, plus a fasting blood test. Would only prescribe the mini pill in the meantime (which I’ve tried before, it doesn’t suit me, I bleed every single day on it)
Anyway, she calls me back to see her when the results are in, advises me they’re all normal so great, I’m in tip top health. So I ask to be put back on my previous pill, she said I’d have to make another appointment as that’s not why I was being seen today. Okay.
So I booked another appointment, had to wait another two weeks, she only bloody took my blood pressure and of course it was high and denied me the pill again!
Said to come back in 6 months and she would reconsider if my blood pressure was better, maybe I’d like to look at my lifestyle?!! What?!!
She also advised that I might need to have a 24hr blood pressure monitor and blood test next time.
Totally messed me about and left me with just the mini pill which I refused to take. Relied on condoms until my dp had a vasectomy the following year.

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 11:10

Do those who get high readings at the GP - do you have general anxiety disorders or purely just when you go to the doctors?

OP posts:

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 11:14

@brieonabagel what readings were you getting? That sounds so frustrating being messed about like that!

OP posts:

treeofhearts · 08/06/2018 11:15

I have anxiety and the same problem. I have mine done at the chemist or my physiotherapist does it.

Wineandpyjamas · 08/06/2018 11:22

I have this and same with my pulse. It wasn’t until I explained it to a midwife that she mentioned white coat syndrome and I realised that’s exactly what I have. I’m not an anxious person at all but for some reason having blood pressure or pulse just makes me so nervous!

They usually just take a second reading which is usually lower. The first time it happened, just after I had my first baby, I ended up having to have an ECG at the hospital. I get why they did it but it was such a waste of time!

summersmith · 08/06/2018 11:23

Not just the doctors (I wish it was!)

SensingWeakness · 08/06/2018 11:27

It happened to me consistently during my last pregnancy. I had to have weekly bp monitoring from 25 weeks due to pre-eclampsia in a previous pregnancy.

I would go to the GP and my bp would be bordering on dangerously high. They would instantly send me to the midwives at the EPU at hospital where my bp would be fine - but I'd have to wait there two hours anyway.

This happened to me EVERY Friday for fifteen whole weeks. Dangerously high at GP, fine at hospital.

My GP was pulling her hair out. After the third week she had two other nurses and another GP all in testing my BP, all with different equipment because she was worried it was her 😂 She even followed me to hospital once after about ten weeks so that she could do my bp at the hospital - and it was still fine there even with GP doing it.

I didn't even feel anxious at my GPs - but I did wonder if I kind of had the 'opposite' of white coat syndrome - where I was living with subconscious anxiety/high bp the whole time but then being in a hospital environment made me feel less anxious/safer/calmer so my bp came right down.

summerbaby1 · 08/06/2018 11:33

I have this too. Bizarrely it's absolutely fine when they use the manual, old fashioned machine at the doctors and when I use a battery powered one at home, just not the battery powered one at the doctors

Brieonabagel · 08/06/2018 11:39

@Frosty66612 I don’t know what the readings were, she just said ‘oooh, that’s quite high’ and I didn’t ask for the figures.
It really really was frustrating, so much so that I stopped pursuing it.
I probably should have complained or got a second opinion at least now I think about it.

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 08/06/2018 11:43

Do you think exercise will raise it too? I have to walk up a couple of very steep heels to get the doctors so my heart rate is always a bit higher when I arrive. Next time I’m going to get there early and give myself a chance to relax for 5 mins before I go in and see if that makes a difference

OP posts:

Brieonabagel · 08/06/2018 12:00

Yes @Frosty66612 worth a try arriving early and resting before going in. Doesn’t help with wcs usually but that might not be the reason for you.

RayRayBidet · 08/06/2018 12:08

I have white coat syndrome as I discovered when pregnant with DD1.
The midwife saw me at clinic and it was sky high. Then they would come to see me at home and it would be fine.
Second time round same clinic midwife at first appointment sighed and said "I'll be round tomorrow to do your blood pressure."
It's actually on my notes at gp, it pops up when they open them.
I don't have any conscious anxiety, I usually don't feel particularly nervous.

user1494409994 · 08/06/2018 12:40

I have white coat syndrome but an not normally anxious. I also had high-ish blood pressure from the moment I got pregnant. It happened both times and started as soon as I got pregnant and stayed that way until the baby arrived but because it was a consistent level, they never regarded it as a problem.

toomuchtooold · 08/06/2018 12:49

Those 24 hour BP monitors are a pain in the arse. I had one last year, it was about 30 degrees outside, I was melting, and then DD fell off a slide at kindergarten ("I was trying to slide standing up. Nobody's ever done that before" aye I wonder why ) and cut all her chin open, I had to run up and get her and take her to A&E, carried her in with blood dripping down her chin, she's needle phobic and they had to give her three doses of sedative before she was out of it enough to give her the local anaesthetic and sew up her chin. Every time she looked like she was dropping off it was like, she's like lying on the bed giggling and waving her hands about, and then gradually her eyelids would droop and they'd come in with the needle and she'd open her eyes and be like "needle aaaaaargh" and then she'd wake up again.

The GP showed me the trace the next day and it was fucking hilarious. She's like, what happened at half 12? And 2? And 2.15? But it was really good because you could see that although it went really high in the stressful moments, it came right back down again and went lower at night when I was asleep, or rather "asleep" - nothing like getting your arm squeezed every 15 minutes to induce insomnia...

RayRayBidet · 08/06/2018 12:53

Toomuch
That just made me lol!
Hope all was OK in the end!

sunshinewithabitofdrizzle · 08/06/2018 13:02

I must have WCS too. My bp was very high the last few times I had it taken at the docs. They gave me a monitor to check twice a day at home for 2 weeks. Every reading I've taken has been normal-ish since. So yeah, it's them not me.

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