Height Weight And Gender

[csnell325]

i'm with dizzygirl i started having sypmtoms as a teenager and was 5'5" and thin i was a dancer and then through the yrs with three pregnancys and all these other health issues i gained more then i would like to admit or say and i hate it cuz it makes me feel even worse soemtimes but anyway short and nto pleasantly plump!!lol o and obviously female!!(pregnancies)

[Brye]

I'm 6'2, 250 lbs, female

[Notgivinup]

5'5" 110 on a good day. Female Always been thin, but not this thin. Before POTS I was usually 117 to 120.

[skyblu]

5'.4" and 98 pounds. I've always been thin but not like this. I've been slowly losing weight over the past 3 years and can't seem to put it back on.

[Tammy]

Short and aveage weight. When I'm at the worst of my symptoms my weight will drop.

[blsvlo]

Somewhere I heard that type A personalities seem to be more effected by pots.... I some how believe that! Most of us are saying we were very actice and athletic in some form and that is somewhat of a type A persons.. I am only 5'1 and a little overweight but before dx I lost lots of weight and now I can not get it off..

[extern14]

I don't have that tall skinny female stereotype. I'm in my BMI range but more on the heavy side as opposed to the underweight side. Wouldn't ya know the one good things about POTS I don't get?!

Great poll!

[Christy_D]

I've heard of the tall, thin POTS description, I guess that's me: 5' 9" at 128lbs. But clearly, POTS seems to come in all sizes. My 14 year old son's dyautonomia and motility problems started during a RAPID growth spurt. He went from 5' 7" (100lbs) to 6' 1" (145lbs) in a year! His docs have even theorized that with the incredibly fast growth spurt, his vagus nerve hasn't quite caught up. I, also, had a major growth spurt around 13-14 years old. I guess my vagus nerve still hasn't caught up!

Julie

My son's problems also became much worse when he grew 7 inches in 15 months. He used to be very thin, but now that he is sick daily, he doesn't exercise or play sports any more. He over compensates with food in the evenings when he is no longer nauseated. He is probably a normal weight for his height 153 lbs for 6 feet tall, but he is out of shape.

[Detrick7]

I am a male, 5' 10" 185 lbs, which is about the heaviest I have ever been (31 years old).

I think more females than males has something to do with guys being less likely to go to the doctor, I had had NCS for about 15 years and first went to the doctor for it a little over a year ago. However, the gap seems way too big to be fully explained by that.

I remember when I had my tilt table test the nurse saying there were not many males with NCS and in her opinion that was part of the reason for lack of medical money and time spend studying it. Therefore a less of an understanding of the condition by the medical community and general public. I hope that in today's day and age that would not be the case. I mentioned that to my wife and she agreed with the nurse. Maybe this is a "hot topic" issue, but thought it was interesting that the nurse made that comment and would never have thought of that myself.

[MomtoGiuliana]

Interesting. I know I have read in literature that women are affected at much higher #s than men by POTS. My specialist says that autonomic dysfunction is probably way more common than we realize--it's very likely just not diagnosed enough.

[ByteMe58]

I just voted, then checked the results and found myself very easily. There was only 1 vote in my height group.

Male

6' 4"

205 lbs

I was always about 200-205, but lost 18 lbs when POTS started.

Before POTS, even at 51 yrs I would say I was in the best shape of my life, working out 4-5 days a week, benching as much as 250 llbs and running 30 minutes on a machine after each workout.

Frank

[erickamcc0523]

I'm 5'6", and I'm 180... but I don't LOOK that overweight. In asking a few close friends how much I look like I weight (since I honestly don't know), I have been told that on average I look somewhere between 130-140, and the highest number is no more than 145 (although I think that number changed depending on how bloated I was). I think that I retain a massive amount of water (and always have) and that I'm full of ****, literally. I am around the same size (except my stomach... it's become much more distended) I was before the IBS-C became so bad, but I have gained, at least on the scales, around 15-20 pounds. Hip-huggers still fit the same, but I've had to go up in size when it comes to medium-rise pants.

[Christy_D]

My son was diagnosed at 14, he is now 15. (although symptoms started around 11 ). He is 6' 1". His also became terrible after a 7" growth spurt. He went from 5'4" to 5'11" in 15 months. He was very thin but has put on a little weight with his inactivity. He currently weighs 155.

[TheLivingDead]

wow the male to female ratio is amazing

[StacyRN]

I really think you should add AGE to the survey... I want to know if all the skinnier ones were young!

[bkweavers]

I heard the theory about people with POTS being tall and thin. That doesn't apply to my daughter either.

Other thing I've heard is that 4 out of 5 people with POTS are woman. Some research on why that is would be good. Actually, I would be happy for any type of research for adolescents.

Brenda

[Tracy C]

This is very interesting. I am short 5'1" and small boned. I was always very thin and under weight (according to them) ranging from 80-95 pounds my whole life. After My 4th child, a divorce from my alcoholic husband, a pregnant teenage daughter ( so 5 mouths to feed by myself with no help because my ex wouldn't get a job because he was in and out of treatment). They put me on fluoxitine and I gained 30 pounds in about 6 months. I was like a new person. When I was thin I never felt good physically. I always felt the best when I was pregnant and had more weight on. My friends and family kept saying I was getting fat and I needed to lose weight. I tried to diet and exercise but felt sick all the time and weak. I quit taking the medicine and the weight just added on instead of leaving. I can lose a few pounds then gain it back quick. I finely figured out that I feel better physically when I am heavier. Although not mentally. I was a size 2 now I'm a size 8-10 in a matter of 3 years. Makes a big difference mentally when you are used to looking a certain way.

So now at 41 I'm 5'1" AND weigh 133.

Tracy

[goodnuff77]

I'm male, 6' 3" and weigh about 200lbs with a slim build. The dr's told me tall and thin are mostly affected with pots. But they also told me pots would go away in 6 months. So I think that shows how little they know about this illness.

[klgpdx]

I am 5'7" and 120 lbs. Same height and weight since I was 14. I have always had to convince people that I am not anorexic... counting calories and fat content to prove it.

My response: "you try having an average heart rate of 115 by going for a light jog all day, every day and not be tired and underweight."

[Monstrosity]

male 6'1 190ish currently, always had a fairly thin build.

[bellgirl]

5'5'' and 105 #....I have MVP, and that is typical for us. I also have symptoms of Marfans, which is really typical for that diagnosis. I am not an adolescent...lol

[Batik]

4'11 and now 101lb, but over the last year I've lost 40lb. I'd been slim as a teenager and young adult, put on weight in fits and starts with the ME, and am now back to my teenage weight at the age of 34. My blood pressure was normal when I was overweight and is back to being low now. I stopped losing weight in March, and while I felt more energetic while losing, I've had more ANS problems since then, particularly with body temperature. On the other hand, I had gallbladder surgery in March as well, so it could be that.

I haven't read the whole thread, but in case no one else has brought it up, the gender imbalance just shows us what is true of this forum, not what is true of POTS patients overall. Women are more likely to go to support groups and similar than men are.

[cberau]

Male, 6'7", 215 lbs, but I'm on a constant ebbe and flow between 190 and 230 lbs.

[Freaked]

I'm a fairly normal weight and height for a woman (a little over 5'6 and 120-126 pounds; I vary randomly), but before my POTS symps started I do feel like I was eating way too infrequently. I'd gotten into the habit of going from breakfast to dinner with some apple juice and maybe a few crackers in between; feeling hungry to the point of faintness was basically the norm. Not in a diet way; it was more that eating at college was a real pain and I kind of couldn't think what to have for lunch at home. I've been very used to hunger since I started writing obsessively at 13 and got into the habit of forgetting to eat.

Now, I just cannot do that. I'm starved all the time, and if I don't or can't eat I pay for it majorly with faintness. My digestive system actually starts shutting down then and rejects everything, and I get into a horrible vicious circle that's ended with me on a drip more than once. Honestly, at times I've felt on the verge of coma or something, even though my blood sugar always read as okay. My blood pressure starts to drop when I get bad though, so I tend to think it's more of a hypovolemia problem, or just bad circulation or something.

I can't help but notice that a lot of people here do seem to be on the exceptionally skinny side, though. I definitely don't think this would be a representative sample of the population in terms of bmi. Maybe a lot of us have messed up metabolisms, or have messed them up ourselves?

[Joann]

Just shy of 5'7".I have always been thin. I used to weigh between 115-120. If I got under 112, I would become ill. When this hit me, I dropped to 100. Took over a year but I got myself up to 124, I thought having a little extra would help, if I got sick again. I guess that was a good thing, because I am having problems again and my weight is dropping, last time I checked I was around 116.

I have had the ER experience that others have had, where anorexia is thrown around.