A MUM of three is at risk of fainting every time she has sex as her heart rate reaches heady heights.
Laura Crow lives with a bizarre medical condition that causes her to suddenly collapse. The 28-year-old was diagnosed with debilitating postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) in 2011, after having her first baby.
The rare condition means Laura’s resting heart rate is 110 beats per minute – around 40 beats higher than the average person.
But triggers including adrenaline and excitement can cause Laura’s heart rate to peak to as high as 180 beats per minute – causing her to pass out.
It’s led to some tricky situations – and Laura has even passed out while getting steamy with her husband Ben, 28.
Mum-of-three Laura, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said: “Whenever I have sex, there’s a 50/50 chance I’ll faint.
“The fainting can happen anywhere, any time – but with PoTS it’s usually a case of
gravity taking over, so the best way for us to do it is missionary, with me lying down.
“The first time it happened it was a massive shock for both of us.
“Ben gets very upset – when I wake up he is very distressed, even though he never continues after I’ve passed out.
“Once I faint I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s very traumatic and worrying for him. “But luckily it doesn’t affect our relationship.
“He’s the strongest rock I could ever ask for.”
But it’s not just sex that makes Laura pass out – other triggers include not getting enough sleep, temperature, laughing, exercise and anything that causes her heart rate to increase, like watching a horror movie. Laura, who has been with Ben for eight years and married for nearly five, had been perfectly healthy up until she fell pregnant with her son Dylan in late 2009 – but out of the blue she started fainting, sometimes several times a day.
After numerous tests, she was finally diagnosed with PoTS in 2011.
She said: “When I was around four weeks’ pregnant, I passed out and went to the doctors.
“I’d never fainted in my life until then.
“The first doctor I saw said it was just part and parcel of pregnancy, but another doctor sent me for tests.
“I think I had had the PoTS before then, but it just took the pregnancy and the ‘trauma’ to my body to trigger it.”
At one point, Laura was passing out up to seven times a day.
But after having her second two children – Ralph, three, and one-year-old Faith – her symptoms started to ease.
Laura still has to be careful to try and avoid situations that can lead to fainting – but with a husband and three young children, it’s not always possible.
Laura said: “We did think twice about having more children – but at the time they didn’t know if it was a hormone problem that had triggered the PoTS, so it potentially could’ve gone away with another pregnancy.
“It did get better – I used to pass out seven or eight times a day, but after my second and third pregnancy it’s only once or twice a day.
“Laughing is also tricky – Ben is a tickler every time he tickles me I laugh myself to a faint!
“Even when playing with my children – we could be running around, joking and laughing, and the next minute I’m on the floor.
“But I’m not going to stop laughing or having sex in the name of PoTS.”
Now, Laura generally only faints once a day, but she has to have a carer with her 24 hours a day just in case she passes out.
She also struggles with other conditions linked to PoTS, including Elhers-Danlos Syndrome, inappropriate tachycardia syndrome and dis-associative seizures.
Laura is now looking into applying for a support dog, which will be able to alert her when she’s about to faint, so she can get some of her independence back.