hypertension and menopause

[ruthe]

Since I've missed my period, seemingly for good (6 months) and am 57 years old, I am quite sure I will finally be at menopause. I feel fine except for frequent hot flashes and the accompanying sweats. My blood pressure, which I monitor daily, has been consistently higher than its usual normal healthy range. Has anyone else experienced this increased blood pressure in similar circumstance?

[katygoddess]

Hi ruthe! I'm new to the forum and while browsing saw your post regarding your hypertension. The only information I can share with you is that the moment my period stopped my blood pressure went sky high. I thought I was coming down with the flu and never realized what was going on. I was very dizzy and it wasn't until a co-worker planted the thought in my head did I get my pressure checked. Hope you are doing better!

[frazzled]

My blood pressure raised when I went into perimenopause and then got worse when I went into menopause this year. I'm lucky if I can get it below 140 over 101.

[viccin]

Wow, wish I had read up more about menopause before it actually started hitting me hard.

Please always get your blood pressure checked by a physician; however, from my experience, this came on very sudden although there were telltale signs I did not choose to pay attention to. I remember I started getting a little blurry eyed with certain distances, like I would look at signs in a store and they would be blurry, and I started getting some headaches.

One day I finally checked my blood pressure with our home cuff and it was 200+/100+. My had just started because unfortunately I was given an SSRI (Lexapro) as I was told it was anxiety and depression (??what?, never was depressed really). That is another story

but through my literal years of research I finally found a gynecologist who told me your blood pressure can fluctuate a lot during your hormonal changes...

that is probably all that was and I ended up taking Lexapro for a year, stopping, and it is 1 year later and I am still having problems from that pill.

anyway, what I learned is your BLOOD PRESSURE CAN fluctuate and very highly during these times. you still need to get it checked because I had one doctor terrify when she kept telling me take Xanax or 'you are going to have a stroke' but I only took that for 3 or 4 days. Another hellish story...but I stopped that for good.

finding the right blood pressure pill can also be difficult. beta blockers are not good if you have any kind of bronchitis or breathing difficulties, and I found that out the hard way.

just be sure and check the different types and classes of pills, and know that they do all have side-effects, it just depends on which ones you can live with; but much better than having a stroke I guess!

I also found out immediately after menopause is when you lose your protection against heart attacks and strokes, but there is a brief window when your estrogen is protecting you from it. now I have to worry about that.

like suzanne somers says, this is the hardest thing you will do in your life and for me it is very true.

others sail through but I did not and it does not mean those who do not are not 'normal.' I have found a lot of women are uncomfortable talking about it and will sort of make light of what they went through (my mother for one because I think people just did not talk about things as openly from her generation).

research, research, and research again that is what I keep doing. doctors very rarely will tell you the whole truth because they want to push medications on people to make money (not all but most), and when you do not want to follow along be prepared they may not want to treat you. move on from those types.

please be well...