POTS Symptoms Checklist: What to Take to Your Appointment

⏳ You have eleven months of symptoms and twelve minutes to describe them. So you lead with whatever happened this morning, forget the thing that actually frightens you, and walk out having said none of what you rehearsed in the car.

📝 A written checklist fixes that, and almost nothing else does. Not because your memory is bad — because recall under pressure, in a room where you feel unwell and slightly on trial, is a genuinely hard task.

💚 And you shouldn't have to be at your most articulate on the days you feel worst. That's the whole point of writing it down beforehand.

📋 Why a list beats a description

Three things happen when you describe symptoms out loud. You anchor on the most recent one rather than the most important. You skip the ones you've normalised, which are often the most telling. And you describe how you feel today, when what a clinician needs is the pattern across months.

A ticked list removes all three problems at once. It also does something subtler: it lets the person opposite you scan in ten seconds what would take you four minutes to say — which buys back most of the appointment.

🩺 The symptoms worth ticking

Grouped by area, because that's how they get assessed. You are not expected to have all of them, and having many doesn't mean anything on its own.

• When you stand up. Heart racing or pounding, lightheadedness, vision greying or tunnelling, nearly fainting, actually fainting, legs going purple or blotchy — and the one people rarely think to mention, that standing still is harder than walking.

• Head and thinking. Brain fog, losing words mid-sentence, trouble concentrating, headaches, blurred vision, noise or light feeling like too much.

• Stomach and eating. Nausea, feeling full after a few mouthfuls, bloating, appetite changes, and being wiped out after eating.

• Energy and sleep. Tired in a way sleep doesn't fix, crashing a day or two after activity, broken or unrefreshing sleep, shakiness.

• Temperature and skin. Heat making everything worse, sweating too much or not at all, cold hands and feet, flushing.

🔁 The part that changes the conversation

A list of symptoms describes a body. A pattern describes a condition. This is the half most people leave out, and it's the half a clinician can actually work with.

So alongside each symptom, note when it happens. Worse standing still, in the heat, after eating, before a period, when unwell, the day after doing too much. Better lying down, with legs raised, in a cool room, after fluids, wearing compression.

That shape — worse upright, better horizontal — is the thing worth writing down, whatever it eventually turns out to be caused by.

3️⃣ Pick three, before you walk in

A full checklist is for handing over. Three symptoms are for saying out loud, because that's realistically how many will get proper attention.

Choose them by impact, not by how dramatic they sound. And write beside each one what it stops you doing — that column is what gets taken seriously. "Dizzy" is a feeling. "Can't stand long enough to cook a meal" is a life, and it's much harder to file under stress.

🔗 Want more like this? Browse all our POTS guides →

⚠️ What a checklist is not

It isn't a diagnosis, and ticking a lot of boxes doesn't mean you have POTS. Plenty of conditions produce this symptom list — anaemia, thyroid problems, dehydration, medication effects, and several others. Sorting between them is exactly the job you're bringing to a clinician, and it's why the assessment involves ruling things out rather than confirming a hunch.

If you want to know what that assessment actually involves, we've covered it separately in the guide to the tests behind a POTS, MCAS or hEDS diagnosis. This page stops at the door of the consulting room on purpose.

The same applies to any numbers you record. Writing down your heart rate lying down and after ten minutes standing is useful information to bring. Interpreting it yourself is not — and a number that looks alarming on paper can have several explanations, most of which need a person in the room.

🚑 When not to wait for an appointment

A checklist is for a planned conversation. Some things shouldn't wait for one. Seek urgent medical help if you have chest pain, new shortness of breath at rest, fainting rather than nearly fainting — especially with an injury — a fast heart rate that doesn't settle when you lie down, or confusion or stopping sweating while overheating.

Those are reasons to be seen promptly whatever the eventual diagnosis turns out to be.

❓ Common questions

📚 Sources

• Dysautonomia International — Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

• Cleveland Clinic — Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

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⚕️ This article and the checklist it describes are personal organisational tools, not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Only a qualified healthcare professional can diagnose POTS or any other condition. Ticking boxes here means only that you have something worth discussing.