High blood pressure concerns

[BambooB]

I have high blood pressure but I am desperate to try for another baby. I've been waiting 2 years to start trying.

Is it safe?

I am sick to my back teeth of doctors and there's only one doctors opinions I actually respect but it's 3 weeks before I can see him (he's lovely, kind, popular and gets booked up quickly) but I'm due to ovulate in a week and I want to know if it's ok to start trying.

I am on medication

1x Vascalpha 5mg
1x Ramipril 5mg

It is safe?

I had this pre pregnancy and was also on ramipril. It is contraindicated in pregnancy so I switched over to methyldopa about a month before ttc. You need to go to the GP and just ask them what you need to be switched to. Hope that helps.

In terms of pregnancy, you may be fine and your BP will be stable on the drugs you take. Mine developed into pre-eclampsia and EMCS at 32 weeks, but it was spotted a lot earlier, and by that point had three additional drugs added. You will be watched like a hawk so if anything does worsen it’ll be picked up quickly.

Sorry just to add - having pre-existing high BP doesn’t necessarily predispose you to pre-eclampsia. I may well have got it anyway. In fact BP drops in pregnancy- at least for the first chunk - so you may find your doses are revised down initially annway

Check with your doctor first. Some bp drugs are much safer than others so they may swap them

Hi OP,

As another PP has said, you can't take ramipril in pregnancy. When I wanted to TTC I went to my GP and I was switched over to a different drug. My pregnancy was actually pretty smooth. I was watched very closely but my BP was stable until it rose pretty high in labour but all was fine with us both in the end.

Interestingly six months after I gave birth I was taken off all BP meds as my BP was fine. I'm now expecting DC1 and my BP has been totally normal so far. All very strange - I was on BP meds for over 10 years before DC1 came along!

Good luck!

Thank you. X

Hello, these leaflets may help:
www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/ACE-Inhibitors/

www.medicinesinpregnancy.org/Medicine--pregnancy/Calcium-channel-blockers/