I'm 27 years old, physically active, with a family history of hypertension. My own blood pressure went into the hypertension range when I tried taking hormonal birth control pills to help with bad menstrual periods, but went back down out of that range (it's still a little above normal, like 125/87 to 130/85 or thereabouts usually) after I stopped taking the birth control pills.

Anyway, I've been on Concerta, 27 mg, for about four months. It helps with executive dysfunction issues related to autism (I have very strong ADHD traits that would be diagnosed as ADHD if it weren't excluded by already being diagnosed with autism). My question is: Does it make sense to ask my doctor about the possibility of the Concerta raising my BP? It's a stimulant, after all; I wouldn't be surprised if it did something to activate the sympathetic nervous system at least some degree.

The reason I'm asking here is that I'm on Medicaid, and that means substandard care most of the time, including a doctor who will only see you for about two minutes, literally, when you visit, and in some cases isn't very good at doctoring. (I had to figure out the birth control pill thing myself; my doctor denied that it could ever happen, and it's a known side effect.) I need to know whether this is a reasonable concern to have, because if I get on my doctor's case about it, I'm probably going to have to insist pretty hard if I want anything investigated.