POTSPOTS Symptoms: The Common Ones and What They Mean
The symptoms people with POTS report most, why they happen on standing, which ones should send you to urgent care, and the conditions that mimic them.
POTS symptoms cluster around standing and ease when you lie down. That pattern gives you the most useful clue.
The symptoms people report most
Lightheadedness
Near-fainting when standing, or after standing still in a line.
Fainting happens in some people with POTS, and many never faint. Fast heart rate without lightheadedness, or lightheadedness without a fast heart rate, points to other explanations first.
Symptoms that should not wait
Call emergency services for chest pain with shortness of breath, fainting with injury, fainting during exercise, a heart rate that stays very fast while you lie down, new weakness on one side, or trouble speaking. POTS does not explain these, and they need urgent evaluation.
Look-alikes a doctor will rule out
The CMAJ 2022 review and the NIH consensus list conditions to exclude before settling on POTS. Stimulants and some decongestants and ADHD medicines belong on the medicines list.
The tests guide lists the usual workup.
Keep a record
Write down when symptoms start, what you were doing, how long they last and what helped. Pair the diary with a few stand tests and bring both to your visit. The visit prep checklist has room for all of it.
This page informs and does not diagnose. Only a clinician who can examine you and see your whole history can interpret your numbers.
- Raj SR, Fedorowski A, Sheldon RS. Diagnosis and management of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. CMAJ. 2022;194:E378-E385
- Vernino S, Bourne KM, Stiles LE, et al. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS): state of the science and clinical care from a 2019 NIH expert consensus meeting - Part 1. Auton Neurosci. 2021;235:102828
- Raj SR, Fedorowski A, Sheldon RS. CMAJ. 2022;194:E378-E385
- What Is POTS? A Plain-Language Explanation
- How to Test for POTS at Home: The 10-Minute Stand Test
- How POTS Is Diagnosed: Criteria, Stand Test and Tilt Table
- NASA Lean Test for POTS: How to Do It at Home
- Do I Have POTS? What to Check Before You See a Doctor
- Tests to Ask For When You Suspect POTS
- Why Does My Heart Race When I Stand Up?
- POTS Heart Rate: How to Graph It with Apple Watch
- Orthostatic Intolerance: Types and How POTS Fits In
- Why Blood Pressure Matters in a POTS Stand Test
- What Is Dysautonomia, and How Does It Relate to POTS?
- What Causes POTS? Subtypes, Triggers and What the Evidence Shows
- POTS and Long COVID: What the Research Shows
- POTS in Teens, Young Adults and During Pregnancy
- POTS Treatment Overview: What Guidelines Recommend First
- Fluids and Salt for POTS: What the Trials Show
- Compression and Exercise for POTS: Two First-Line Treatments
- POTS Medications: What Each One Does and What the Trials Show
- Living With POTS: Triggers, Pacing, Heat, Meals and Sleep
Want a record to bring to your visit? The POTS app guides the stand test at home and graphs your heart rate. See the app