Lightheadedness

K.,

I have suffered from dizziness for years and I would recommend that you see your PCP first for blood work, then see a neurologist. If your tests from the PCP and the neurologist comes back negative there is a very good neuro ENT specialist called Dr Patni, he is in Winter Park and also has an office in Michigan Street I think. Don't ignore your symptoms, although I know you can get all sorts of things going on before your period, I know from my own personal experience that dizziness can be a very debilitating problem. Good luck.

S..

Hi K.,

I would suggest you go and see you family doctor and ask to have your hemoglobin and iron levels checked.

It may be that around your cycle your body begins to lose a lot of blood, due to your menstruation. It is not uncommon for women to feel lightheaded and dizzy around the start of their menstrual cycle because of this. More women are prone to feeling this way if they are anemic- low blood iron levels or have a low hemoglobin - related to blood volume.

I am not a doctor, but a medical technologist and I actually do a lot of testing pertaining to iron and hemoglobin levels. I see this situation a lot. Of course, only your Dr. can assist you, but make sure you ask for these specific test. Otherwise, most Drs'. will just ran a standard CBC- Complete Blood Count, which will check you hemoglobin, but will not check for your iron levels. You will need to have your iron tested to rule out anemia.

I hope you will find out what is happening to you and you start to feel better. Sincerely, R.

i have been going thru this for quite a few years now. although i have had 5 black out spells. which it took a long time to figure out what it was. i have low blood sugar. your menstrual cycle which starts a good week before you actually start bleeding can cause your sugar levels to lower. i make sure i get up and eat a good protien breakfast like eggs with cheese and some kind of healthy carb to get me off to a good start. your body will burn off the protien instead of your sugar. but during your menstrual cycles you can add more healthy carbs to your diet. low blood sugar is hard to detect unless they are looking for that specifically. low blood sugar also has alot of the same symptoms as anxiety. which thru research online i've discovered that anxiety attacks can lower your sugar as well. its that time of the month for me too. and last night i started with twitches in my legs a little bit of the shakes and i ate a almond granola bar thats got lots of protien in it and some carbs and about 15 minutes later the shakes went away. there is a lot of different things about low blood sugar and i am still confused to this day on exactly what to do. if you think your about to pass out then you might want to go drink just a little orange juice its so high in sugar that if you drink a whole cup your spike your sugar. but i guess i'll stop typing cause this got so long for something you dont even know if you have. do some research on hypoglycemia online. you'll find tons of stuff.

It is true that many people might feel lightheaded sometimes however you are scared to drive and worry about falling - this sounds like it is something you should not ignore or 'wait and see if it goes away'. Sometimes early detection can save your life.

You might want to have your iron levels checked. I had the same problem and it was all due to the fact that my iron levels dropped right before I started. An iron tablet each day stopped the problem.

K.;

Yes it isn't uncommon for women to get lightheaded and dizzy. Definitely go to your doctor and discuss you symptoms as the other ladies suggested. I had the same problem although mine wasn't very serious I simply needed to increase my water intake around that time of the month. So talk to you Doc and he or she will be able to tell you what the actual culprit is :) Hope that you get it all worked out!
J.

Sounds like you may be anemic-- which is just an iron deficiency. I'd go to your gyn (or regular doc) and get a blood test during the time of month when you're dizzy to see if that's all it is. If that is the problem, you can easily add iron to your diet and/or they may recommend an iron suppliment. I would NOT start taking a suppliment, though, unless your doctor suggests it.