Chronic illness cases surge post-covid, leaving young patients searching for answers
Experts are reporting a five-fold surge in diagnoses of a rare chronic condition since the COVID-19 pandemic began
“They told me, this is your life now”: an unprecedented number of young people are finding themselves struck with a debilitating condition as the impacts of the pandemic continue to unravel.
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Diagnoses of a chronic condition which causes elevated heartrate, extreme fatigue, and fainting, have risen five-fold since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to experts.
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a chronic illness characterised by a major increase in heart rate upon standing or sitting up, paired with symptoms such as dizziness, fainting, nausea, brain fog, and extreme fatigue.
New data reveals that cases have seen an unprecedented spike in the aftermath of the pandemic, leaving many people searching and struggling for answers.
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Researchers from the University of Toledo examined data which evidenced a five-fold increase in documented POTS cases from pre-pandemic levels, published in the European Heart Journal last year.
“We’ve suspected for several years now that there is an association between COVID and POTS," says Dr Blair Grubb, a renowned cardiologist and one of the leading voices in POTS research.
He added: "I’m seeing this in my own clinic. My waiting list is longer than it has ever been.”
POTS is a form of Dysautonomia, a term which means that the body’s autonomic nervous system- which controls automatic bodily functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion - does not function correctly.
Infection from viruses such as COVID can cause trauma to the autonomic nervous system, dysregulating its normal functioning and triggering conditions such as POTS in otherwise healthy individuals.
Alaina Hall, 20, was diagnosed with POTS at age 12, after going back and forth between multiple doctors and specialists; but wasn’t able to access treatment until four years later.
She says she was forced to abandon her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina after developing the illness, explaining: “I had to quit dancing because it was no longer safe.
"That was extremely upsetting, I lost a major part of my identity.”
Alaina now uses her platform as an online activist, known as ‘alaina_potsie’, to raise awareness for the condition and provide a community for those affected.
She said: “I was told when I was first diagnosed: ‘This is your life now and you have to live with it’, and that was so discouraging to hear when you’re 12-years-old - being told that your life is essentially over.
“My goal in what I create is helping people understand that there are things you can control. I want to raise awareness, so more people understand our experience; and offer hope.”
Charlotte Musselle, a 22-year-old events organiser, says access to medication, mobility aids and accommodations can make a huge difference to a POTS patient’s quality of life.
She described the difference that access to medication has made for her life as "like night and day".
“Access to medication is the only reason I can have any sort of stability in my life," she added.
Charlotte developed POTS in summer 2021, following her second bout of COVID, when she began to experience severe spells of dizziness and fainting.
She said: “It was quite quick in succession; I had COVID in mid-July and started getting my dizzy spells in August.
“Then one day I just couldn’t stand up properly, I couldn’t walk. It was incredibly frightening."
Charlotte says she was unable to attend college for over a month, struggling to stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time.
She said: “The period between getting POTS and being diagnosed was really hard.”
Charlotte says that at the beginning of her journey to diagnosis, POTS was never even suggested to her, or her family.
Charlotte says with the support of her family, she discovered the condition through their own research and had to fight with the GP for it to be taken seriously.
“I went from GP to GP, cardiologists, and neurologists before getting diagnosed,” she explained.
The average time for getting a POTS diagnosis in the UK is currently between four and six years, according to research published by CognitiveFX.
The explosion of new cases backdates to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that the extent of the numbers is only just beginning to be realised.
Charlotte explained that the condition has had a life-altering impact.
She said: “I had to drop out of drama school because I wasn’t able to physically keep up. It’s affected every choice I’ve made throughout my life.
“Once I realised that it wasn’t going to go away, I went through a real grieving process where I had to reconsider how I was going to live my life.”
A recent study, released in May 2026, found that almost two thirds of Long-COVID patients also met the diagnostic criteria for POTS.
While the initial COVID outbreak was felt most severely by the elderly population, POTS most commonly affects individuals between the ages of 15-35, with 85% of these cases found in women.
However, research from 2021 showed that female patients experience a much higher diagnostic delay than male patients, with the average sitting at two years longer.
“Young women are already such an under-researched group," Alaina said. "When they go to the doctor, their pain is dismissed as ‘normal’ but it’s not normal, it’s just normalised.”
She added: “We could be so much further along if we started taking women’s healthcare seriously.”
Charlotte re-affirmed these feelings, citing frustration at the lack of research on the condition.
She said: “I think as women, our healthcare just isn’t prioritised, so the research and the diagnostic times are well behind.“
We really have to fight to be heard, I’ve seen so many people just get their experiences dismissed as anxiety or hormonal trouble.”
This study also suggested that female patients were more likely to be told that their symptoms were ‘all in their head’.
Alaina emphasised that the primary goal of her social media content is to contest that narrative.
She stressed: “The biggest thing that I try to say to people who are struggling, is that it is not in your head."
“If you were making it up, it would not be a shared experience with so many other people. I believe you about your symptoms, you are not dramatic and you are not powerless," she said.
Experts from Frontiers in Neurology, a leading journal in neurological research, published that POTS is now a ‘major phenotype’ in the long-term impacts of COVID, meaning that POTS has become one of the most recognisable long-term impacts of COVID-19 infection.
Patient testimonies submitted to POTS UK, an organisation dedicated to research and support for the condition, evidence just one more way that the impacts of the pandemic are still being felt.
Jamie, 29, told the charity: “May 18th, 2022, is the day I got COVID, and the day my life changed."
She said: “Not long after COVID, I began experiencing dizziness and gastrointestinal issues, alongside overwhelming fatigue. It became increasingly difficult to keep up with both my career and lifestyle.
“I held on as long as I could, but eventually I had to accept that my body could no longer sustain it.”
On 7 January 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care addressed the growing demand for POTS care across the UK.
Ashley Dalton of the Department of Health said: “We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down.“
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the efforts needed to return to the standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029.”
POTS remains a hugely under-researched condition and, while the major spike in cases is encouraging increased investigation, there is currently no cure.
However, thanks to social media platforms such as Alaina’s, and a gradually increasing public awareness of the condition, patients are feeling less isolated and support is slowly becoming more accessible.
Alaina concluded saying: “I want people to understand that they are not alone. This is a shared experience with so many other people, and those experiences are real.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with symptoms discussed in this article, you can visit POTS UK for more information and access to support.
NHS England has been contacted for comment.