Fibromyalgia and hypotension

Curious if hypotension is something anyone else has/is dealing with? usually have very mild symptoms, but last night for what seems to be no reason, my blood pressure dropped for about 15 minutes. Was on the verge of passing out. Researching there seems to be a higher correlation with fibromyalgia and blood pressure issues like non-dipping blood pressure, but couldn’t find anything to indicate hypotension being an issue. Been having an issue finding a specialist so, so off to my PCP today to discuss.

Hi meaganbrit,
me hypertension. I’ve heard of a few with hypo-, but also in connection with POTS - is that maybe a lead for you?

Hey JayCS,

POTS has come up with a friend of mine who is a nurse, I will mention it to MY PCP when I see her this week. I wonder, is POTS something that some folks with fibromyalgia also sometimes deal with or just something with very similar symptoms and the two get confused; I will do some further research to see what I can find between the two. I have not gotten an official fybro diagnosis even after about 6 years of testing and seeing specialist, since I have been unable to find someone who specializes in Fibro to give me the diagnosis so limited in where I can get information.

Hiya - I seldom hear of POTS together with fibro. More often with my other big condition, MCAS. Fibro however is seen by some MCAS experts as probably part of MCAS. But I think they’re just creating a big condition pool there. I do think it OK to see such connections, but actually they have never helped me at all. The only symptom which is common to my fibro and to my MCAS is my severe fatigue. Apart from that I can distinguish the two fairly easily. My GI intolerances started long before fibro, so since I know of MCAS, I’ve put them down to that, because my GI symptoms didn’t get worse when fibro started with a crash. (Rather they got better, because that was one of the first things I was able to get a handle on, by intensifying my GI symptom analysis and elimination diet.)
And altogether I have seldom had success grouping symptoms, at least in the sense of diagnoses. So I don’t really see much of a problem for you tackling your symptoms in the fibro diagnosis, nor in the combination of POTS with fibro: they are not similar symptoms at all, and the two can not get confused.

POTS alone I do see as important to check, if you suspect it. You can check it roughly yourself BTW. Measuring your pulse after getting up. There are more detailed tests, but a quick check would be the pulse going up something like >30 after getting up…

Have you tried self-diagnosing fibromyalgia in the time being, using the ACR 2016 criteria?

I was thinking POTS when you mentioned hypotension. I have had low blood pressure forever??? But, I don’t have the other symptoms of POTS.