White coat hypertension

[Daisy2017]

Good afternoon all!

I have always had high blood pressure when I go to the doctor's office. If I have the same nurse everytime I get used to her and my BP doesn't get so high. Well my doctor lately has been going through nurses. I went in Friday and it was a new nurse. My pulse was 140 and my BP was 148/80. I know it was because my anxiety was raging. Well the doctor seemed concerned and had had the nurse come back and check it again. As soon as I knew that my heart started pounding. So then it was 150/80. Now I have stuck in my mind I have high BP. Normally at home watching TV my pulse is 55. So I am telling myself that if my heart​ is racing when I am nervous of course it is going to be higher.

I have a bp machine and I used it this week. I was so nervous when I first got it out and my pulse was 140 and BP was 143/90. So very close to doctor's office. After sitting there and taking it multiple times, it averaged 115/70 and pulse back in the 50's. Sometimes even lower than that, as one was 108/65. Well I keep telling myself that I can't rely on a home machine and it could be inaccurate. But if it was that close when my pulse was the same at doc's office it has to be kinda close.

I have had the same bps in the office before and other times it has been 110/60 in the office. Is it just my anxiety level doing that?

Just wondering what everyone else thinks or if this happens to them!

Thanks!!

Edited to add that I am a 27 year old female, 5'6 and 140 lbs. I also run 3 to 4 days a week :)

[PASchoolSyndrome]

Hi!

White coat hypertension is an actual, well-recognized condition! As long as you consistently get good readings at home, I wouldn't worry. When you go to the office and it's high just try the best to control your anxiety. Doctors worry more when it's the other way around, having normal in the office but walking around at home in the high 140s!

[bin tenn]

It definitely sounds like you're just anxious about the readings. I used to get that all the time! Just walking past the blood pressure kiosk in a pharmacy, even if I had no intention of stopping to check, would send my mind (and heart) racing, virtually into a panic attack. It took a long while to get used to it.

When I saw my doc for the first time in July '15, pulse was 120-ish, and BP was somewhere around 145/98. I've been on a beta blocker ever since. Even for a long while after starting the beta blocker, just checking my BP at the pharmacy caused anxiety, and subsequently high readings. Now, however, I've gotten over it, thank goodness! My BP is quite consistent at around 117/78.

When I first saw my doc in '15, I told him about my health anxiety. I asked him if I needed a BP reader at home. He said I didn't "need" it. But if I "wanted to", he said I had to "promise I wouldn't check it multiple times." The cuff apparently puts pressure on the veins in the arm, restricting blood flow, and takes a while to return to normal. So subsequent readings in a relatively short time will continue to read differently, so it isn't accurate.

[swajj]

Those BP numbers are ok. Not ideal but ok. If your anxiety causes your BP to spike constantly then meds might be recommended. That's how I ended up on BP meds.

[Daisy2017]

Thank you for the replies! Does taking your blood pressure at home multiple times in the same sitting cause it to be lower or higher?

[PASchoolSyndrome]

If you constantly compress your artery then it will cause each reading to be higher.

[Daisy2017]

Ok thank you. I usually wait about a minute between readings. Once I am sitting for a bit and get relaxed every time I take it, it is lower. I have always been so afraid of high bp that I think my anxiety just gets the best of me when I take it. I need to just forget about it and live my life. :)

[orthagonal]

Guidelines for BP readings require that you be seated for five minutes and have your arm held supported at heart level. It's my experience that you get marched back there and get your BP read after maybe a minute while your arm is dangling at your side, which can lead to higher readings.

I'm used to it now, and I almost always have a reading that's right at the borderline hypertension I first. Every single time I've ever been worried about it and mention it to the doc (after waiting in the room quietly for a while), it's been fine the second time. So I'm just used to it now, and the more you get used to it, the better your readings will be.

[AbeLinkedIn]

I've had my BP be higher than normal during GP visits so I'd imagine with us it's normal? I used to have a BP reader of my own but my doc knows that I get antsy during visits so he understands.

[katniss]

Omg this is SO common. I have it and so does my mother in law. A new doc she went to almost called an ambulance for her because her bp shoots so high at the doc's office.

I had a little case of this during my pregnancy because I had to go to the doc's so often and I hated it. So it would always be higher than normal