Who wants to help solve a medical mystery?

I had that too. And I also have a low-normal blood pressure. In my case, I think my pregnant body is very sensitive to blood sugar changes. I made sure to eat lots of protein and little sugar (natural sugar… no added sugar) each time I ate.

I was vigilant about each meal and snack during my last pregnancy and didn’t have the nauseous dizziness that I had in my pregnancy a few years ago.

@Cupcake So do you think making sure I’m not having too much sugar in my meals would help? Or am I not having enough sugar? If I were to guess, I eat too much of it.

Sounds like something is spiking, like BP or sugar, up or down. Can they put you on a monitor and track vitals for the day?

@Adirondackwannabe I’m not sure but I can definitely mention it. When they check me at the doctors my blood pressure is normal and my blood work shows normal but that doesn’t mean it’s not raising or dropping during the day of course.

I’m no doctor – I don’t even know anyone who plays on on television – but I’d be looking at the combination of BP and blood sugar.

I would start to keep a log of when and what you eat compared to when you feel faint. My own guess is that it’s related to low blood sugar. (Does the Metaformin list any side effects that may be relevant?) How often do you eat? How much? At what times of the day, vs. the times that you feel faint? That’s what I’d be logging to see if a pattern develops.

EDIT: Also, “altitude”. Are you still living at or near sea level? If you used to live near sea level and have recently moved to the high plains or mountains, then altitude could have an additional effect.

I second all the other seconds regarding low BP and sugar. You need more ( sugar), but not processed sugar. Use naturally occurring sugars, foods with sugars in them. Also, I find that when I do need to add sugar to foods, agave works better for me than granulated, processed cane sugar. I love it on cold cereal, oatmeal, in tea, and every way I used to use table sugar. I believe there are even some recipe conversions are available online somewhere. I admit I have been lazy about seeking them out to try. Ask your doctor if she knows of any reason you should not make such a conversion during pregnancy.

I think it probably is your blood pressure dropping. Your pressure is lowish, and since it fluctuates during the day, you mightbjust be dipping low enough to get spacey and even pass out.

I would check your thyroid, but I doubt there is any serious problem since your pregnancy is overall fine. The thyroid number might only mean something if you have tested it while not pregnant, because it might still be very nornal, but just moving enough to throw you a little out of whack. Or, it could just be how they pregnancy hormones affect you and will be a mystery like how some women get morning sickness and some don’t.

It isn’t likely to be the metformin since you didn’t take it with your first pregnancy, although sugar levels might be a culprit. Eating lots of small meals might help, rather than just a couple large meals a day, but I have no idea if you already eat small meals to begin with.

Stay safe. Passing out can be very dangerous. I mean hitting your head when you fall or passing out while driving can cause great harm for obvious reasons.

@JLeslie I have actually had my thyroid checked several times and it’s always been normal. As far as meals go, I tend to eat a couple big meals during the day but I will be changing that to smaller meals more often to see if that helps.

The doctor did mention hormones. She said if everything else checks out fine it might just be the hormones. In my mind, and I’m no doctor, but I would think if hormones were going to cause such an impact on me that it would happen in the first trimester. The second trimester is usually when things start to even out and I feel a lot better. The first trimester I was nauseous every day, light headed if I got up too quickly, moody, fatigued, headaches, etc. Now I feel pretty great. It would seem if hormones were to blame, I would experience this fainting issue in the first trimester with both pregnancies but it’s always the second.

Who knows. The hormones are whackado all throughout the pregnancy. Hopefully, the smaller meals help. We already know you have some sort of sugar thing going on most likely since you are taking the metformin. I don’t think doctors really know the whole relationship with hormones, sugar, insulin, etc. There is still stuff that needs to be researched and understood.

Women with PCOS who start to ovulate while taking that drug often only take the drug while trying to get pregnant. I always thought it begs the question: do they need it all the time? The doctors seem fine to let women not ovulate or have false cycles with birth control and let the “sugar problem” go untreated. It never made sense to me, but my understanding of it is limited.

@JLeslie I’m not sure what the Metformin does for sugars or hormones. Originally the doctor prescribed it in order to help me start getting a period and start ovulating again. I went over a year without one and my hormones levels were crazy. After being on the medicine within about 4–5 months I was back to regular. So I’m not sure how it works but it must do something to level out hormones.

A lot of doctors will advise to stay on the medication throughout the first and second trimester. Mine said it’s completely up to me but I can stop it if I want. Instead of stopping completely I dropped from 1000 mg to 500 mg a day. I don’t feel comfortable completely stopping yet. I’ve heard too many stories of losing the baby after stopping the medication and it’s known to be safe during pregnancy so I see no harm in continuing. But as far as it being the cause, it’s doubtful because like you said, I wasn’t on it for my first pregnancy.

Metformin is the generic name for the drug Glucophage, I mentioned it to you in one of your former questions about not ovulateing. You can see it in my first answer here.

It is a diabetic drug.

In fact giving it for ovulation problems is off label use. As far as I know it is only approved for type 2 diabetes I think. Not that it matters.

@JLeslie Yes you’re right. It’s definitely off label use.

Who finally prescribed it for you? What type of doctor?

@JLeslie My pcp prescribed it. Once I started seeing my Obgyn they also approved and wanted me to continue its use at least for the first trimester.

I’m glad they gave it a try.

@JLeslie Me too. There were very few other options.