Found a Doctor .. Yeah.

[LisaMallon]

Well saw a couple and have found one to work with me through taking hormones.

She's had a lot of experience with TSs (both male and female) and I like her attitude. She also knows my gender therapist very well. I think we hit it offl, which is good since I'll be seeing her for for the next few years.

Went through all my test results, pretty much as normal (except platelet size??? go figure). And my testosterone was normal:censor: .
Only glitch was my blood pressure. I had it tested by the doctor and got 180/110 ... nearly had a heart attack over the shock.

So I started retesting it at home with my meter (used to do it regularly but got out of the habit, as it was always ok). And it was a little high after the doctor's visit. Then settled down.

Took readings hour after hour and day after day and got around 140/90 on average.

So when I went back to her I took my meter. Then we took readings with hers and mine. And yes it was up then, 'white coat' nerves obviously (quite common).

Here is the good news, checking her's against mine, my machine read 10 (systolic) above hers, over reading basically. Tried it a few few times and it is consistent.

So my averages are actually 130/90, which is not too bad for my age.

So are all on for starting hormones in Sept ... :cheer:

Moral of the story, if you have your own BP machine, get it calibrated it could be off quite a bit.

[MC-lite]

@Lisa: Congrats on finding a doctor. Best of luck with everything.

Before I started HRT, My pressure was around 130/90. I was 51 at the time. About 6 months on Spiro changed that for me. I'm now around 117/78. My doctor actually recommended that I eat a little more salt. :)

[Jorja]

What, did you turn over a rock and there she was? :)

Glad you have found a doctor with experience working with TS patients. Now young lady, time to cut out all those salty foods that we all dearly love and eat a low sodium/low fat diet.

[Eryn]

Concerning the blood pressure, the way they measure it can make a big difference.

I went to the doctor and the nurse took my blood pressure with the fancy automatic meter. It came out high. The nurse took it again. It came out high again. I was told to come back in a week for another reading. Of course, in that week I used the three self-service blood pressure machines I came across, all of which showed me to be in the normal range. Back at the doctor's office, the nurse took my pressure and guess what, it was high again. Doctor came in and I told him that, while I didn't want to doubt the expertise of the nurse and the automated blood pressure machine, I had three consistently normal readings from other sources. The doctor took my blood pressure with a manual sphygmomanometer (yes, I had to look up the spelling) and it came out normal.

Moral: don't believe blood pressure readings until you have several consistant ones from different sources!

[LisaMallon]

Yes Eryn and the old manual sphygmomanometer (yes I cut and pasted it from your post) is still the best and most accurate. Machines can vary quite a bit and should be regularly tested and calibrated.