Fainted: I have never fainted in my life before... - Thyroid UK

Thyroid UK

137,154 members160,838 posts

Fainted

HarryE profile image
25 Replies

I have never fainted in my life before, but I did in the middle of the night on Friday, when I went to the bathroom. I guess this is hypo too, is it? It was really scary. :-(

Written by
HarryE profile image
HarryE
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
25 Replies

Hi HarryE low blood pressure also vagus nerve can and does cause fainting/falling. Did you have any awareness before you fainted that you were going too, or no recollection of faint feeling before finding yourself on floor.the difference points to different causes.

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to

Not sure I knew I was going to faint, as I never have before, but I vaguely remember feeling a bit odd. I think I scrambled up before I realised what had happened, because the next thing I remember is realising the floor was wet from the cup of water I had dropped. Now I think about it I have been going a bit woozy when standing up quickly from squatting down for quite a while.

frenchreikimaster profile image
frenchreikimaster

Hi, I used to faint in the middle of the night regularly for 10 years and docs were not interested. Since being diagnosed with low thyroid and treating myself with Armour It has stopped. I live in france and my dr was not good at giving enough Levo, only on 25 with him. Like you I had no warning.

Moggie profile image
Moggie

I used to pass out regularly plus have dizzy spells but have had none is all my vitamins have been corrected and my levo is now at the correct level.

Have you had all your vitamins tested as low iron, low vitd and low B12 can cause dizzyness and fainting.

Must have been scary - was you on your own and how long was you out for?

Moggie x

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to Moggie

My ferritin is low & I am supplementing it. Have B12 & vit D as well, although not actually sure if they are low, but I guess they may be. Hubby was in bed fast asleep! I think I was only out for a little while, I know I left the bedroom at 2:19 & was back in at 2:28, having cleared up the water & been to the loo - funny how you remember the most pointless details!!

Moggie profile image
Moggie in reply to HarryE

Book an appt with your GP tomorrow and let him/her know what is going on with you. Fainting is the bodies way of shutting down when things get to much so maybe your levo dose needs looking at again as well as your vitamins.

It wont hurt to tell the GP so that's what I would do. Hope its a one off and you dont get a repeat - my worse faint was at a night club, in front of a drag artist. One minute I was watching him the next I was outside with my mates and a bouncer - embarrassing or what.lol. Linked mine to the time of the month (hormonal?) and it is a symptom of PMT.

Moggie x

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to Moggie

Thanks, but not actually on Levo yet as they are still telling me my TSH is showing no thyroid issue! Despite the antibodies at 1007!!

Moggie profile image
Moggie

Then this might push the GP to act as I have not fainted once since being on levo. Cant understand your GP's attitude - you have high antibodies and you are going to end up on levo so why not help the body by giving you levo, which may decrease the antibodies, now instead of waiting for full blown hashi's. I would definately be telling him about the latest development and see what he says.

Moggie x

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to Moggie

I know that & you know that, but getting the damn doc to see it is like knitting fog!! But yes i will give it a go, thank you x

Moggie profile image
Moggie in reply to HarryE

Like the "knitting fog" phrase - never heard that one before,lol.

Moggie x

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to Moggie

I wonder if you can knit brain fog?? Maybe that would be a use for it? ;-)

Clutter profile image
Clutter

Take this article to your GP theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

in reply to Clutter

interesting.... those amazing little white pills - but elusive to me! (& HarryE too it seems)

Now then, Fainting - something I seem to have forgotten (or never dared to mention as taboo) - but I've fainted ever since I can remember, a right nuisance I was and rightly told so... often... that sort of behaviour is SO embarrassing for everyone, and not to be encouraged.

Quite a few at junior school - can't remember getting to go home early 'tho, (ship 'em out nowadays)

I do remember being in the sick room (freezing) in vest & navy knickers with a pocket (after movement & dance or whatever it was called) and they brought me my recorder to pass the time.......was I a danger to others?

& in various public places - once in 'Della Portas' on £200 worth of cut glass - bit messy that one, Dad running down street with a bleeding child to the local 'Eye, Ear & throat' (and nose) or more embarrassingly at 'dinners out' (mostly if duck & orange was on the menu)

However usually I quietly just slid unnoticed under the kitchen table and was left there, as of course this was attention seeking behaviour as suddenly I'd magically recover - I couldn't remember really, just dusted myself off, shook my head cartoon-like & carried on! This was just something that happened to me. Weird tingly feeling beforehand (even if sitting).

The second phase happened whilst pregnant, fun times! at 7 months scared my boss silly! 3rd pregnancy in a chip shop squashed 2nd child on fall.

And of course low blood pressure has nothing to do with low thyroid problems..... J :D

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to

Cold &/or stress seemed the most likely reasons for fainting fits I had as a child/teenager. In adulthood it's been illness and more recently hypo, first undiagnosed and then overmedicated. I usually manage to recognise the graying out and tingling sensations and sit down before full out fainting these days and being stabilised now means it is becoming less frequent.

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to Clutter

Thanks, I saw this same story yesterday while googling, but in a different paper I think. Will take it along. I am starting to just wish the damn TSH would go up just to convince them. They all just ignore the bloody symptoms!

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to HarryE

Yes, it was also reported in the Mail. Good luck :)

Harry E, it was low B12 for me. I used to faint just washing my hair in the shower. One occasion I was cleaning some snow off my car and I just went. Now I have B12 injections I haven't had the problem.

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to

Thanks, I have started supplementing B12, although the blood test showed no deficiency. But then most blood tests seem to be pretty hopeless!!

in reply to HarryE

I just wish doctors did their job properly and diagnose by symptoms. The B12 serum test is a bad way of testing for B12 deficiency. Make sure you take Methyl Cobalamin and folic acid/methyl folate. You need both for the B12 to work for you. Definitely not cyancobalamin, I took that for 10 years and it just did nothing. Now I have nerve damage in my feet.

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to

Yes I have that sort of B12, will go & get the folate too! My kitchen worktop now looks like a pharmacy!! :-)

in reply to HarryE

That's good Harry! I know it makes us look like hypochondriacs lol. I do get embarrassed when people see all my bottles:-)

Clutter profile image
Clutter in reply to

Makes me laugh when it's reported that vitamin and mineral supplementation is mainly for the "worried well".

hairyfairy profile image
hairyfairy

I began having dizzy spells when I was 11, & got them occasionally if I didn`t eat regularly. the worst time was in early pregnancy, when I couldn`t stand still for more than 5 minutes without feeling giddy. Iv`e always managed to avoid actually fainting though.

waveylines profile image
waveylines

If it's of any help one of the first signs that i had of hypothyroidism was fainting or feeling faint ( something I had had no experience of in my life up til that point) -they sent me home from work as I looked so white they told me. Like you i was refused treatment - it was about three years before the lovely GP deemed that by a point 1tenth of an increase on a blood test for TSH that I was indeed suffering 'officially' with Hypothyroidism! I remember remarking very dryly at the time that it was truly amazing what an increase of nought point one tenth can do re diagnosis! I don't think he noticed my heavy sarcasm.

So I can only say that as you are already aware, you are likely to have an on going fight - your best recourse would be to go and see a doc privately who is sympathetic towards your cause. Sadly with Dr Skinner gone and Dr Peatfield poorly I don't know who to recommend. Ask Louise in charge of thyroid UK she has a list!

Sorry I can't suggest more......lol

HarryE profile image
HarryE in reply to waveylines

Thanks x

You may also like...

Feeling faint, dizzy and exhausted

I have CFS and lots of symptoms. Recently I have less energy and no motivation. I have put on 5...

Fainting spells

Felt as if I was going to faint today. Can anyone shed some light? I was fairly stable most of the...

fainting every time I’m ill

hi, really hoping someone can help! Basically I have an under active thyroid that’s medicated with...

Is there a link between being hypo and fainting?

(I have my thyroid but it's simply not working for some reason). I was put on Levothyroxine when I...

Just woke up starving and faint, is this normal?

followed by an apple and nuts when I got in, but i still went to bed really hungry. Note: i dont...