Hi everyone
For some years now I've been troubled with high blood pressure white coat syndrome. I just have to look at the monitor and it goes up. Each time I mention it to doctors they just double the medication but it makes no difference . I've even been thinking about hypnotherapy . Does anyone else suffer from this and is there anything that helps.
It's very common.
Easiest thing to do is buy a decent quality arm cuff monitor.
Not one of those wrist or thumb yokes.
Then,whenever suits you, sit at the kitchen table and take your BP.
Sitting, and arm level with monitor.
4 times. In quick succession.
Average the last 3 .
And that's your reading.
I'm flabbergasted that the doctor would double your medication on such a flimsy excuse.
If anything, they should be varying the medications ,to avoid side effects.
Time to change doctors??
All the best. Let us know how it goes.😅
You are not understanding the OP’s issue, sorry
as Madlegs says. But, please rest for ten minutes before you take the reading and breathe slowly and gently throughout. Maybe do these three readings once a day at about the same time, then take your readings to the doctor and show them. No talking when you do the readings.
Or, do you have a trusted friend to help you? If so, get the friend to write down the readings WITHOUT YOU SEEING THEM. This might help you to keep them low.
Also, the website of Blood Pressure UK might be helpful to you.
It’s very common I can sometimes feel my anxiety and my blood pressure increasing if a nurse or doctor says they’re going to check my blood pressure.
I would add to the advice already given not to look at the readings on your home monitor until you’ve recorded the number of readings you want to do provided the monitor has a memory setting(most do), then work out the average of the final/ lowest three.
I've been on BP meds since my late 20's (56 now). It was only recently when a PFO was found due to a funny turn at work, where my BP was very high, that I saw a senior cardiologist privately, as a junior one had wanted to double my meds. He did a 48 hour BP monitor, which showed I have severe white coat syndrome with a background of true high BP. He said that if they had doubled the meds, I would have felt awful, really tired and "out of it" It's a bit ironic for me really, as I work in a hospital setting. Do you feel okay on your doubled dose?
Hi very sorry to hear you have these issues. I do too and it is really stressful. The main thing that has helped me is deep breathing for a few minutes beforehand and have a chill for at least ten minutes. Once you start getting some lower readings the anxiety should lessen.Good luck!
Does the high blood pressure only happen in the doctor's office? Is your blood pressure always "normal" when you take your readings at home?
yes me! I just look at the machine and my boood pressure and heart rate go up. This is because they also make a big deal out of it which makes me even worse haha. To be honest it’s horrible and I prefer to do my own BP at home x
hi Middles,
Sound advice from all above, definitely get home monitor and take a good ten minutes rest and relax before taking st least 4 readings, do this over a few days and take average, I bring recent photos of readings with dates on them to the gp, she is happy to take those readings as mine glues up once I see that monitor in the surgery!!
Good luck, hope you get a better result as doubling meds is not much help in my opinion,
I have white coat but we know this because my regular readings at home are normal. My doctor looks at my readings now to monitor my BP.
By the way, I’m surprised that a doctor would keep upping your meds if they know it’s white coat. That part doesn’t make sense to me.
I would suggest treat it like a phobia, and get help for this. If you do see some low readings then you are unlikely to have true high BP and just have a very reactive (and normal) BP system. Your fight or flight system is just a bit sensitive to the perceived threat. Just my opinion…
Can I endorse Madlegs post above. I have an Omron home monitor which is linked to an app on my phone. I always had raised BP in a medical environment.Now I take my BP at home. All the results are on my phone and the doctor looks at those and they are ok. Sometimes they are pretty low!
Occasionally, to check my equipment, I take my BP machine in to take a reading with it, alongside the doctor's machine. Invariably it's higher than at home, but crucially my readings match the surgery machine's.
Since this routine my white coat problem has improved. Hope that helps.
Unstable Blood Pressure. 
Blood pressure
Blood pressure all over the place
High Blood Pressure.
Very high blood pressure suddenly
