After a lifetime of low blood pressure, it has gone high. Afraid doctor will try to blame it on me taking Armour.

[Reefseeker]

A 'fun' blood pressure test at mother-in-law's at Xmas (we do it every time we there, she likes it!) showed my traditional low blood pressure to have risen to 140s/70s-80s with enormous fluctuations.

These past 10 days I have been monitoring with a home blood pressure monitor. It is all over the place. I understand ideal is around 120/80. There are some low systolic (upper) readings of 115, 120 etc, and some low diastolic of 70s. However, most fall in the systolic 130s and 140s, and the diastolics are frequently in the 90s. However, the fluctuations are enormous and this can occur over less than an hour. There are good clusters in the 150s and 160s systolic, and in the low 100s diastolic. My highest systolic is 183 and highest diastolic 124 on the same day as a diastolic of 67 (with one of 149 which I am disregarding as wrong). Such seesawing is really worrying me, but mostly as I now have to discuss this with the doctor on Friday who I have only 'notified for their information' that I have been on Armour for some 20 months now. I understand that seesawing readings are a high risk and that doctors must not just average these out.

My December thyroid results that I have done privately in Cyprus are: TSH 0.005 (ref range 0.27-4.2), FT4 16.03 (ref range 12-22), FT3 6.2 (ref range 3.1-6.8). The doctor has asked me to let them know any test results, and I am anxious that the TSH result might be linked with the blood pressure. Could it be? I have reduced my armour to one grain a day from two on alternate days. Am monitoring any impact on BP.

Edit: Could adrenal exhaustion be relevant? My last Genova test 20 months ago showed: Total daily cortisol 6.5 (ref range 21-41), DHEA Mean 0.06 (ref range 0.30-1.00). Was treated at Sutton CFS clinic for around 6 months.

Or could menopause start be important? I'm 48.

Any advice on all this appreciated

Angela

[Muffy]

Armour normally reduces blood pressure readings.

[Reefseeker in reply to Muffy]

Thanks, that's what I thought; wondered if the ulta-low tsh might mean I'm hyper? A strange thing is some very high readings in bed at night reading a book - 150s/90s!

[Muffy]

TSH would be low or non-existent whilst taking any form of T3, so your blood test results are quite good.

[Reefseeker in reply to Muffy]

Thanks, I appreciate that, makes me feel more confident in what I believed to be true. Which means working out the cause of the sudden rise as something separate.

[humanbean]

My blood pressure rises and also becomes erratic when I am under-medicated.

Edit : And I'm taking NDT.

[Reefseeker in reply to humanbean]

This is very helpful, hadn't considered I might be undermedicated, although I am taking an NDT dose that is equivalent to half the thyroxine dose I was on. I kept it lower partly due to tsh blood result but also because I have the pounding heart thing at night and have been getting hot. Today I took a dose three hours after my first dose, and making a direct comparison of time, place and circumstances with last week, my BP is 131/87 straight after teaching today compared with 152/93 this same time last week. Will keep checking and thanks to you and Muffy once again. Might delay doctor's appointment to see if undermedication is the cause.