Jane Walkington
The Daily Sceptic
In her article, “Introducing POTS: The Next Social Contagion to Grip Miserable Teenage Girls”, Mary Gilleece implies that POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) is something troubled young women are imagining or making up. I disagree.
While any illness can attempt to be mimicked, true POTS can’t fall in to the “social contagion” category. It has observable, measurable, symptoms. It is acknowledged and treated by several (but not enough) fantastic doctors both in the NHS and privately. It’s not just based on a ‘feeling’ you have nor on self-assessed symptoms. POTS is relatively recently understood. It was first written about in the BMJ in the mid-’90s, so there is low but growing awareness in the medical community. The diagnostic criteria are often missed due to the fact that heart rate is usually taken while sitting and symptoms vary within a day and seasonally. For many, POTS is debilitating.
Currently POTS is diagnosed when an inappropriate rise in heart rate of greater than 30 bpm standing (40 bpm for under-20s), compared to resting, is observed. No one can fake that. Because of the challenges in diagnosing POTS, there are many delays to getting diagnosed and being given appropriate help. Due to the broken state of the NHS, waiting lists to see a consultant are typically two years, though the symptoms can be observed (but not usually diagnosed) by a GP or the patient him- or herself with a heart rate monitor to hand.
Sufferers are often dismissed as imagining symptoms or being anxious, so articles reinforcing this narrative does real harm. Trivialising POTS symptoms helps perpetuate views which create barriers to getting appropriate medical assessment (I was laughed at by a consultant and it delayed my son’s diagnosis by two years).
I’ve been in patient groups for a decade and there has definitely been an increase in those arriving following HPV and Covid vaccines. It is also true that viral illness – especially with a high temperature – can trigger POTS. This is nothing new. The HPV vaccine however may well account for the significant increase in girls with POTS (though prior to this being rolled out, it was observed that more females than males are impacted – often females who have previously been athletic). Pro-vaccine consultants ask my (now adult) kids whether or not they have had vaccinations – they are definitely observing a link between certain vaccinations and POTS developing or worsening.
This articles was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
