Women with sleep apnea

[Coastgirl32]

I am a 32 yo mildly overweight female.I keep hearing that it's abnormal for women of my age and weight to have osa. Especially as severe as mine. I just got my machine two days ago and my pressure is set at 14. Is that high.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

Pressures range from 4 to 25...yours is about in the middle. I saw 20 the other night. Slept right through it.
It's just a number and all it means is you need that much pressure to hold the airway open to prevent the collapse of the tissues. Has nothing to do with anything else. Tiny skinny women might need over 20 and a big blustering guy might need 6...it's just a number.

Now 14 is going to feel more like a hurricane at first than 6 would but there are ways to help with that sensation.
How are you doing?

What machine did you get? Can you add it to your profile? You may have a machine that has some software available you can use to monitor the results.

[avi123]

Many ladies posters at your age and weight have OSA, and some others have Central Sleep Apnea Syndrome (CSAS) which is worse. Do you know what other medical conditions are co morbides of OSA and CSAS?

You could read the following articles and become a real maven in this field:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/295807-overview

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/304967-overview

Assuming that your pressure of 14 cm was prescribed for CPAP use, which looks to me OK, then by using an AutoCPAP machine, the machine would do a better job and at a lower median pressure. But there are certain medical conditions such as CSAS, COPD, etc., for which an Auto CPAP is contra indicated.

[chunkyfrog]

Good news, many of us have LOST weight while on cpap.
The increased energy and decreased stress hormones is GOOD for your body (and your brain, too)
With my Autoset, I lost more weight than was ever possible before.
Straight cpap gave me aerophagia, with auto, it's gone.

[Julie]

The number of apneas on your study or at home do not translate to how much pressure is needed to keep your airway open... a whole other thing at play. Apneas are triggered by various things but the size of your airway is individual and just a 'mechanical' problem.

[dlr0212]

"The increased energy and decreased stress hormones is GOOD for your body (and your brain, too)
With my Autoset, I lost more weight than was ever possible before.
Straight cpap gave me aerophagia, with auto, it's gone."



Ok...so there's still hope for me, right? I needed to see this, as I am suffering from aerophagia so badly. But I am losing weight because I always feel full. I have so much more energy too.

Costgirl, when I started 6 weeks ago (I'm a newbie), mine was on 15. I have since been back to my dr. and he has set it on a auto setting, so depending what I need through the night, it is between 6 and 15. It was a wind tunnel and hard to get used to. However, because I have a bloated stomach, I am going back to see if I can do something different to relieve it. I have so, so much to learn about the machines. I still don't know the terms, scientific lingo, initials for everything.

Hang in there though..in the last 6 weeks, I have never felt better. There's been an amazing difference in my life. I used to wake up several times a night gasping for air, drinking sips of water all night long, waking up to chapped lips, and of course being exhausted. I would get up, get the kids off to school and then crawl back into bed until 9:00 a.m. it was not way to live. I now begin my day at 6:30 a.m. and I will never go back. Hopefully, maybe lose the weight, and get rid of it. I did not have this 2 years ago, but have gained a lot of weight over he last two years and it went right to my neck area, thus constricting my airway.

But as I said, I am a newbie and dealing with this aerophagia. It's awful, but I will continue to try different things, because, I know, I cannot live without my machine at this stage in my life.

Good luck, and stick with it. Talk to your doctors..

D

[BlackSpinner]

I am a 32 yo mildly overweight female.I keep hearing that it's abnormal for women of my age and weight to have osa. Especially as severe as mine. I just got my machine two days ago and my pressure is set at 14. Is that high.

Women your age (or any age) are vastly under diagnosed. Most doctors learned in medical school the old tired mantra "fat old males have sleep apnea" so they don't look past their nose. When mine started just after I had my youngest, I was 39 and skinny. It took me 20 years to get diagnosed and then it was only because my sister heard me "sleep" and recognized what her husband had. I had to talk my doctor into referring me.

[Catalytic]

Like Blackspinner, I had to talk my doctor into referring me for a sleep study. I am 40, overweight, female. I KNOW I've had it for 18 years, because I've listened to my husband kvetch about my snoring for that long. My mother swears I snored in the hospital the day I was born, and my step-sister complained loud and long about having to share a room with me starting in 5th grade due to my snoring.

What *really* peeves me off is I spent close to a month in the hospital in the summer of 2010, I know I snored because my poor husband had to sleep there with me, because I refused to stay in the hospital if my 6 week old could not stay with me. (I was nursing.) My OB convinced the hospital to let baby stay with me, BUT my husband had to stay, as well. My husband would take the baby home a few hours a day and have his sister watch him so he could get some sleep. I had probably 15 different nurses and 4 different doctors who saw me sleeping during that time, and NO ONE said anything about a sleep study, my snoring, NOTHING.

[quietmorning]

One day docs will forgo the 'profile' and opt to look at the symptoms. . .until then, we are the best foot forward in getting our friends, neighbors and family to the doc if they need to go. I didn't fit the profile when I was diagnosed. The doctor said that I probably wouldn't be very bad if I had apnea at all. I ended up surprising him with being severe. (I don't snore - or when I do it's a very quiet snore through my nose, I don't have a large enough neck, I am female.)

I'm responsible for five people getting in to a sleep study - and now all five are on CPAP - and NONE of them fit the profile. I hope to add more to the list so that I'll have the people I care about around longer. . . **eyes hubby - who absolutely fits the 'profile'.**

[Catalytic]

One day docs will forgo the 'profile' and opt to look at the symptoms. . .until then, we are the best foot forward in getting our friends, neighbors and family to the doc if they need to go. I didn't fit the profile when I was diagnosed. The doctor said that I probably wouldn't be very bad if I had apnea at all. I ended up surprising him with being severe. (I don't snore - or when I do it's a very quiet snore through my nose, I don't have a large enough neck, I am female.)

I'm responsible for five people getting in to a sleep study - and now all five are on CPAP - and NONE of them fit the profile. I hope to add more to the list so that I'll have the people I care about around longer. . . **eyes hubby - who absolutely fits the 'profile'.**

My husband will be asking about a sleep study at his next appointment. His neck is almost 18", and he is maybe 10lbs overweight (he gets taped at Army weigh-ins, but he has a ton of muscle, so he passes those with ease). I have heard him snore maybe 3 times in 18 years. But he is exhausted all the time, would love to take a nap a couple times a day, and wakes up with a headache 9 mornings out of 10. He doesn't have much patience for piddly stuff, so I am not sure he would ever use a CPAP if he actually needs one (he probably would if someone guaranteed no more headaches!), but I can say he thought I was dead this morning because I was so quiet....so he is definitely impressed with MY machine LOL

[BlackSpinner]

, but I can say he thought I was dead this morning because I was so quiet....so he is definitely impressed with MY machine LOL

My daughter came home from a party at 3am the first week I had my machine and came tearing into my bedroom and shook me because she couldn't hear me snoring. She was sure I had died or something. I was no longer "mama Bear".

[logicalditz]

I am a total newbie, still waiting to hear back from doctor after titration study. I am quite a bit overweight, but only 28.

[avi123]

Catalytic wrote:

My husband will be asking about a sleep study at his next appointment. His neck is almost 18", and he is maybe 10lbs overweight (he gets taped at Army weigh-ins, but he has a ton of muscle, so he passes those with ease). I have heard him snore maybe 3 times in 18 years. But he is exhausted all the time, would love to take a nap a couple times a day, and wakes up with a headache 9 mornings out of 10. He doesn't have much patience for piddly stuff, so I am not sure he would ever use a CPAP if he actually needs one (he probably would if someone guaranteed no more headaches!), but I can say he thought I was dead this morning because I was so quiet....so he is definitely impressed with MY machine LOL

If his neck size is 18", waist size above 40", and BMI above 28 then he most likely has SBD (Sleep Breathing Disorder).

Calculate his BMI here:

http://www.apidra.com/toolbox/bmi-calculator.aspx

Snoring is not a requirement for having a lousy OSA.

Does he take sleeping pills which could give him a morning headache?

p.s. to bring the baby to the hospital was a BAD idea, IMO.

[Catalytic]

, but I can say he thought I was dead this morning because I was so quiet....so he is definitely impressed with MY machine LOL

My daughter came home from a party at 3am the first week I had my machine and came tearing into my bedroom and shook me because she couldn't hear me snoring. She was sure I had died or something. I was no longer "mama Bear".

Awww, poor kid! Funny how it's such a dramatic difference that it scares our families...I've been in ignorant "bliss" about how noisy I must have been!

Catalytic wrote:

My husband will be asking about a sleep study at his next appointment. His neck is almost 18", and he is maybe 10lbs overweight (he gets taped at Army weigh-ins, but he has a ton of muscle, so he passes those with ease). I have heard him snore maybe 3 times in 18 years. But he is exhausted all the time, would love to take a nap a couple times a day, and wakes up with a headache 9 mornings out of 10. He doesn't have much patience for piddly stuff, so I am not sure he would ever use a CPAP if he actually needs one (he probably would if someone guaranteed no more headaches!), but I can say he thought I was dead this morning because I was so quiet....so he is definitely impressed with MY machine LOL

If his neck size is 18", waist size above 40", and BMI above 28 then he most likely has SBD (Sleep Breathing Disorder).

Calculate his BMI here:

http://www.apidra.com/toolbox/bmi-calculator.aspx

Snoring is not a requirement for having a lousy OSA.

Does he take sleeping pills which could give him a morning headache?

p.s. to bring the baby to the hospital was a BAD idea, IMO.

That calculator is atrocious, and not at all accurate. Basing BMI off height and weight alone is quite silly, as it doesn't begin to give the correct picture. My husband's body fat percentage, measured via some machine used by the Army here, is 19%. Considering his age, 46, he's well within limits. His waist is 33". He's currently in the control group for a nutrition study, and had his BMI, BMR, % of water in his body, etc. tested about two weeks ago. He strength trains 3-4 days a week, and does cardio 5-7 days a week. According to the calculator above, his body fat is almost 30%, so please don't trust its accuracy.

I know snoring isn't necessary for someone to have OSA, that's why I've encouraged him to ask about a sleep study. On the Epworth scale, he would probably score 13-15. He doesn't take any medication except Excedrin Migraine, and he's had the headaches for over 20 years. A neurologist gave him some med to prevent migraines a few years ago, but we didn't care for the potential side effects, so he opted not to take it. He's "scared" of the other med the doc gave him to treat an active migraine, though fortunately his headaches only turn into true migraines about 3-4 times a year. (And I have no idea why he isn't afraid to jump or rappel out of a helicopter, but positively refuses to try this med.)

At any rate, I've read enough to see that while many of us meet the "traditional" OSA sufferer profile, quite a few do not, so that's why I am encouraging him to discuss a sleep study with his doc. I plan to do some reading on UARS soon, as well.

As for keeping the baby in the hospital with me, we weighed the pros and cons at the time, and the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Had we been at a large, civilian hospital, likely we wouldn't have been allowed to have him there, nor would we have chosen to, but we were in a very small, remote-area hospital that we did not feel was overly risky for the baby. It worked out fine, and he's a happy, healthy, almost 3 year old now

[stage0]

I know it is a blow to the female image....other factors are involved too CG32 like weight distrbuition, heridity, meds, sickness, allergies, jaw structure, tonsils/adenoids, neurological diseases...just off the top of my head. I did not see your AHI value from your sleep study...how many times did you stop breathing per hour.

There are 3 main types of apnea too, hypopnea, obstructive and central. Others are treated, but that is another story