Is this just low blood pressure?

[ToastedSesame]

I am 30w. Every night I am sleeping 9 hours on average and usually I have a 20/30 min nap during the day, but all day long I am wiped out. If I closed my eyes I could go to sleep wherever I was!

I have had my iron checked and it was 11 at 22weeks, GP said this was only borderline low, but I have been taking iron anyway and my latest MW bloods came back normal.

I have so little energy its making me feel depressed. If I walk up the stairs I have to lay down for 20 minutes afterwards. If I want to put my hair up I have to lay down afterwards as holding my arms in the air makes me so tired! If I do anything remotely strenuous (Like get my toddler dressed! ) I break out in sweats, feel weak and shaky and have to lay down.

I've had times where my vision has gone dark as well and I feel really breathless, or have to take deep breaths to try and recover.

It seems worse just after I eat my breakfast. I've tried having more carby and high sugar foods (pancakes and strawberries) and that made me feel even worse. If I have yoghurt and granola I feel a tiny bit less awful. I wondered if blood sugar levels were something to do with it.

I feel 80. I feel so shit its really getting me down, I feel I can't enjoy my life much at the moment.

Mentioned it to MW and her advice was "eat plenty and stand up slowly in the morning"

Does anyone have any advice please? I'm desperate to feel better.

Sorry you're feeling like this and I can totally sympathise as I'm exactly the same except I'm only 25+3. I said to my husband this morning I feel like I'm about 100 I'm moving so slowly. All my blood tests have come back fine and so has blood pressure. I have no energy whatsoever over the last week or so

Ask if they have checked your thyroid function when you had a blood test.
I couldn’t lift my arms to tie my ponytail at my worst.
Did the MW check your BP?

It does sound like it could be low iron to me. What strength iron are you taking? 11 might be considered normal, but it's hardly optimal. Have they also checked your ferritin? My haemoglobin was also low-normal, but I was put on iron anyway because of a low ferritin level. I'm still waiting for it to take effect...

Have you had a glucose challenge test?

And agree with @LadyFannyButton above - ask them to check thyroid too

@Colinthecaterpillar35 Sorry to hear you're feeling crappy too! How long has it been going on for? I've felt this way since about 20 weeks, but its getting worse :(

@LadyFannyButton They did but it only measured TSH which was 1.4 so fine.

@Dinosaurus86 Sorry the ferritin level was 11. I've been taking 2x spatone sachets a day, which is not a high dose but its what the GP recommended. I haven't had a glucose test no, I wonder if its worth asking for one.

Could be iron?
Could be gestational diabetes? You need to insist your bloods are checked either way. The red flags were the tiredness after breakfast (aka lots of carbs tend to be breakfast food such as cereal etc) causing a spike and crash in blood sugar making you feel like this xxx

Oh no wonder, that’s a low ferritin level. Mine is similar and I’ve been put on 2 x 200mg ferrous sulphate daily. You can buy it over the counter without a prescription.

I would still definitely ask for glucose test and thyroid test too.

@Metallicalover this is what I'm wondering. I have an appointment with my GP tomorrow so I will insist that this is tested for.

@Dinosaurus86 Right I'm going to pick that up today, need to get this sorted! Thanks for your guidance.

Be aware that ferrous sulphate/ferrous fumerate can cause constipation. If you pick some up I suggest also picking up some fybogel too. It’s safe to take every day, even when pregnant.