Pots Worse During Monthly Cycle?

[hholmes13]

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all had a great time during the holidays! I've been MIA for awhile because life has been pretty busy and my symptoms have been relatively manageable. I feel like I may have seen someone talk about this before but couldn't find the post on it....

Do any of the ladies here find that their symptoms get a lot worse during their period? I can practically sit down with a calendar and circle the days I am going to feel horrible. I thought I was imagining it at first, but I've been tracking it for the past 3 months or so and like clock-work things get bad during that week. I may have random bad days during the other weeks, but nothing like when my cycle rolls around. I put a call into my doc to see if she has any suggestions. For those (if any) of you deal with this...what do you do about it? Is there any way to prevent it? Any insight would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Heather

[kmichaelson]

It's funny that you bring this up, because this used to be the case for me. My dizziness and fatigue would get much worse during my cycle. However in the last few months, I've noticed that during the first 2-3 days of my cycle, I've felt MUCH better than normal--in fact, on those days I feel almost like a normal person! The bad news is that about midway through my cycle my endometriosis kicks in and I start having extremely severe vomiting and cramps, so then of course I don't feel so great any longer and it takes awhile to recover from that... bleh, that's another story.

Anyway, I guess my experience isn't quite like yours, but I DO notice some change of symptoms at this time.

[Hope]

Hi Heather,

Yes my POTS symptoms are more severe during my period. I'm figuring it's the hormone changes that affect the ANS, and just the loss of blood. It takes me a week (two this month) to get back on the up-swing. I do not know any tricks to improve this so if you find ANYTHING out, please keep us posted. I have an appointment next week and this is one of the things I am going to address.

[misstraci]

I've always kept a little monthly calendar where i write "P" for those days of the month and when i got sick, i still continued to write my "P"s but now, I also write down days that i feel extra worse, etc. I've noticed a pattern and sometimes I go back to look at the recent months and notice that my worst of days are always the week before, during or after my actual period SO, the absolute worst is probably the week after. I've tried to research the hormones that are highest during each phase of the cycle but i'm confused about what is considered which phase. I never got any good answers in my search for this

[lissy]

I believe this is common with us...I haven't found the true technical reason and when I first got very ill I could have bet a million dollars my hormones were making me ill. But after having hormones tested over and over they are always at the right level.

I have been told some BC can stop your cycle and would be a good option for some.

I have been told anti-depressants can make the symptoms less.

And also if you are on florinef you can increase the dose during your cycle.

I also get very ill with my cycle a week before (chest pains, very very dizzy,and I could almost sleep 24/7) by time my cycle comes its like thank god I thought something else was wrong! During I am extremely drained and afterwards its RECOVERY * like I just went through something major.

I have explained this many times and no-one seems like its a big deal, but it truly is. I wish we could find out what is really causing this problem.

[icesktr189]

Yes mine is but I also developed PMDD after the birth of my daughter, so not only do my POTS symptoms worsen, but I get depressed too. It stinks!

[s-pot]

This is defo a problem for me and in recent months, like others here, i have managed to track severity of my symptoms to different stages in my cycle. I was also on a BC device, progesterone only that I have discovered has been making things worse.

I tend to feel great once i get my period, feel almost normal for about 10-14 days and then the downward spiral begins. This is the mid-cycle stage when Progesterone starts to build. From this point POTS seemed to get worse and worse for weeks until I got a period and the cycle started again. (last time i ended up in hosp the symptoms got so severe!)

So for me the progesterone only BC seemed to be adding to severity of my symptoms as I didnt get a regular cycle and progesterone was building for alot longer! Progesterone seems to kick of my POTS.

I recently stopped the BC and have noticed some difference in severity of POTS symptoms althou im still definately noticing a drastic change in my body at that mid cycle point.

Think, as with most things related to pots, everything seems to effect people differently and its so hard to pinpoint exactly whats going on...for me this is what I have discovered is significantly adding to the debilitating times!

[hholmes13]

Thanks for the insight ladies. My doc basically told me that there's not much they can do. I'm on Nuvaring and she said that removing it can cause a vasovagal response but that doesn't make sense for me because my symptoms worsen before that. I saw the other post on here about menstrual cycle and POTS. Interesting stuff. I guess for now I just have to suck it up during that time and brace myself when it rolls around!

[icesktr189]

If I decide to have a second child, I am determined after to stop my periods completely LOL ..its absolutely terrible how they mess with my POTS.