Question for anyone watching:

I've been working on getting back on hormones since my previous prescripts ran out and I moved to a new school/have new insurance/new primary care. I've been trying to connect with the school specialist in hormones for a few weeks. The other day after weeks of being kicked around from one doctor to another to find the specialist my school's insurance company will do business with and being told by every doctor up to yesterday that "Well, I'd prescribe them for you, but I'm not allowed to under your insurance plan, you need to speak to this OTHER Doctor..." I finally came face to face with the actual specialist. Sort of. After spending an hour with her Nurse-Practitioner first, the doctor came in and talked to me for about 10 minutes and said "I can't prescribe you hormones because your blood pressure is too high. Work on lowering that and come back in THREE MONTHS."

Has this happened to anyone else? I've never heard of this before. And it's not like I wasn't on hormones just recently. Sure, I'm a bit heavier than usual, more stressed out (grad school is ridiculously stressful) and my blood pressure is somewhat higher than usual, but it's not usually that way. Also, I went to a drug store and checked my blood pressure after I left the clinic and my pressure had dropped 20 points. I tried to ask her for a compromise - a lower dose while I work to bring my weight and blood pressure under control, but she wouldn't hear it.

Needless to say, I was pretty devastated. Then they had the gall to bring in a 'social worker'/therapist to try and make sure I wasn't planning to walk off a ledge or something. I weeped for hours last night. I don't know what to do - I CANNOT WAIT 3 more months to get back on hormones, I will LOSE MY MIND. The only thing that was keeping me sane was thinking that I'd be back on as soon as I eventually got to the right doctor, but now this!?

Strange.  Can you at least get spironolactone as a blood pressure medication?  That's the on-label use for it.

I am on Spiro atm, but only because I begged and pleaded. But she wouldn't even discuss estrogen, let alone anything else (progesterone, finasteride)

*mod edit for dosage

Try to look at the bright side, sweetie at least your on spiro. This will at least get your blood pressure down along with lowering your testosterone level. This is a good thing, isn't it? So when you do go back to see the doctor. Hopefully she will prescribe the estrogen for you. I wish you nothing but the best of luck on your journey in May, the Angels always be looking upon you, and guiding you on your journey.

Hugs,

Melissa Ann

As a person that had undiagnosed high blood pressure and suffered a stroke because of it - 3 months of waiting for hormones in order to lower your blood pressure seems like a very doable thing to me. It is the ultimate motivator to lose weight and get yourself in better shape, because if you don't you know that here will be more delays. And I can assure you that you do not want to fool around and experience your own stroke. I was extremely lucky to come out the other side with not to many left over side effects, but every day there are some parts of my body that don't work the same as before to remind me of that day.

Cut out salt, walk, eat healthy light meals ... it's really not that hard.

The course has been charted and is lying before you - will you take the necessary steps to get to where you want to go?

My blood pressure was astronomical - 170/140. Discovered at the dentist. I knew it was high but not that high. Now I'm down to 120/80 but I take lotrel and I lost 30 pounds and I'm losing more.

Get your health in order. I feel 100000x better even with the dysphoria now that my bp,weight and Uric acid is under control.

Lose weight ASAP. Even a small amount can make a huge difference. Aim for a BMI of 25 or less. Cut out the salt. It's no good for you. Then get exercising asap!

Strange since bio-identical estradiol (vasodilation), bio-identical progesterone and spironolactone (the last two are diuretics) all tend to LOWER blood pressure. Perhaps your doctor is thinking of birth control pills or Premarin which tend to increase blood pressure due to stronger effects at site of liver, you should perhaps explain the difference or get a second opinion from another doctor.

Some have great success lowering their BP and weight by simply lowering carbs and increasing fat intake to compensate for the lower carbs. Carbs stimulate insulin, insulin promotes fat storage and increases water retention and blood pressure.

Good luck!

Any chance of a second opinion?

Sure, spiro will lower blood pressure.  But playing devil's advocate, surely it would be irresponsible of a doctor to prescribe medication to mask the symptoms of some underlying and urgent condition that needs addressing?  High BP is not to be dismissed lightly.  Something is causing that high blood pressure, and it's best to correct the thing causing it rather than simply mask it.  Diet, lack of exercise, or something completely different - someone needs to figure out what it is.

We don't go to a doctor with, say, knee pain and expect the doctor to give us painkillers and send us out the door.  The doc's job is to find out what's wrong with the knee and fix it.  Same with high blood pressure.  I'm sure the doctor gave some advice on how to lower it rather than just telling you to fix it.  Follow that advice.  I can't imagine that the doctor is doing this for any reason other than genuine concern for your health.

It's a frustrating delay.  But use the time wisely.  Diet, exercise.  Make sure the next time you see the doc, there's no reason whatsoever for denying you hormones.

Quote from: Brenda E on November 09, 2014, 08:11:45 PM
Sure, spiro will lower blood pressure.  But playing devil's advocate, surely it would be irresponsible of a doctor to prescribe medication to mask the symptoms of some underlying and urgent condition that needs addressing?  High BP is not to be dismissed lightly.  Something is causing that high blood pressure, and it's best to correct the thing causing it rather than simply mask it.  Diet, lack of exercise, or something completely different - someone needs to figure out what it is.

Actually, no.

When I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure, the first thing my dr did did was prescribe meds. Started off with a low dose of a single drug (beta blocker), then eventually increased the dose, then went to a combo drug (Lotrel). This is pretty much the standard of care. He did also tell me to lose weight and cut salt intake but he also prescribed the meds.

High blood pressure could be caused by diet, lack of exercise, obesity or similar factors but in many cases it is genetic. In my case all my family has a history of high blood pressure so I was pretty much going to have it.

The cholesterol meds, same thing. The standards were actually revised recently to lower the threshold at which the doctors would prescribe statin drugs for lowering cholesterol levels. In fact the day after they did it, my doc called me in and wrote me a prescription for Lipitor. My LDL was on the high side of normal but the HDL was extremely low, so he prescribed it to bring down the ratio. Same thing with BP, it was genetic for me.

And actually, taking the meds has been the best thing that has happened to me. Within the first week my head stopped feeling like it was constantly about to explode. I just thought it was normal, but when my BP slid all the way down to the normal range I didn't realize how bad it was. No wonder the dentist who found out I had high blood pressure told me he was amazed that I didn't feel it.

Makes sense.

I had something similar.

I went vegetarian and I quit smoking. Due to this, my pressure dropped 20 points within 1 month consistently. I am currently in a healthy range and been so for a year. I kept a log and measure every week.

After SRS, my pressure dropped another 15 points. Not sure why, but I guess it is because of stress relieve. I was pretty amazed that surgery could do that.