A post that will make my mother angry.

Not that this post has anything directly to do with her (Hi Mom!), but I know she will get her feathers ruffled.

In February 2009, I got "diagnosed" with high blood pressure. I didn't really understand why, because I was heavier in college than I was then, but I am also under much more stress than I was then. My biological father has issues with his blood pressure, too, so I thought maybe my genetics were coming back to bite me. And anytime I've not taken the prescribed medication, lisinopril, my blood pressure is really high when I check it.

Last week, we had some conversations with Dr. M and as a result, I went off my birth control and other medications--blood pressure and anti-anxiety. Today when they checked my blood pressure, it was totally normal, 123/85, a week after having no blood pressure medication whatsoever.

Which made me wonder.

Is the birth control causing my high blood pressure?! As high as my numbers could get (I think one of the highest was like 150some over 100), you would think without any medication my blood pressure would be sky high. But this was also a week after having no birth control pills. I don't have a medical degree, but I'm seeing an obvious link. Why wouldn't my gynecologist have thought about this when seeing my lists of medications? Why didn't the general health nurse practitioner think about birth control before writing me a prescription?