I have now read every one of your posts regarding palpitations. Here is my question....when you refer to palpitations, are you just referring to the skipped beats or premature beats, or are you also including rapid heartbeats (tachycardia, 100+ bpm)?

It seems as though most of the women on this board suffer from the skipped beats, thus far I have not experienced any irregular heartbeats (only rapid heartbeats).

I have read was has been recommended for palps, I'm just curious to know if the regimen also applies to fast heartbeats? Have you suffered from the rapid heartbeats yourself?

I don't know what it is.....I can let the hotflashes go, the insomnia, the awful periods and now headaches, however; it is the palps that are consuming me (literally!). Regardless if the doctors tell me it's benign, I still can't let it go. I want to try the vitamins that have been suggested, again, only if it applies to rapid beats as well as irregular skipped beats.

Thank you so much for EVERYTHING Dearest, I don't know what I would do without this forum.
Karen

Karen,

Although I personally have experienced only the skipped beat (pvc) type palps, I have read about loads of women on this website who've had the racing heart. It is really common. If you look at Dearest's list of 34 signs of menopause (see list of titles in top RHS of screen) , you will see it is listed in there as number 2 symptom! Hope this helps and please don't worry - you are peri-normal!

Hi Squiggle~

Thank you so much for that. I am so sick and tired of myself!!! I just want to crawl into a little hole! There are so many people dealing with real, worrisome things, and I can't even let something like this go. What worries me is that the women who have referred to "fast heartbeat" don't experience what I experience. Perhaps theirs gets up to 80/90 bpm, I can get mine up to that just going up the stairs. This is just seconds or perhaps a couple of minutes of a rapid, rapid heartbeat. When Dearest refers to rapid heartbeat, I'm just not clear on what she exactly means.

I have read about ablations that have gone horribly wrong, about horrible experiences are beta blockers, these are options that I have for the future.

Again, I feel so selfish, self-absorbed, just plain ridiculous!!!! Doctors have assured me it's benign, I just want to know that there are others that have it and are content with knowing that it will be okay.

Thanks for your words of support~
Karen
P.S. Can't wait to start the CBT!!!

Karen: Rapid heartbeat is difficult to live with. My daughter, age 18, has suffered with this for 5 years now. She's been monitored, scanned and evaluated and the docs still tell me it is benign. This doesn't make it easier to deal with. It upsets her when it happens, and can disrupt whatever she's doing when they hit her.

Beta blockers can help a lot...I have friends who take them for rapid heartbeat. DD isn't at that point yet, but if your doc has suggested them, why not give it a try? Don't assume the worst...we tend to only hear about the bad experiences people have with drugs, while millions of other people take them and have positive results...

Karen,

Try doing a search on rapid heartbeat (click the results as posts button) and you will see several other posts by people mentioning heartbeats as high as 120 or 160. I was going to post a couple of the links in this post for you but despite managing to do it for the first time ever last week, I just tried to again but can't for the life of me remember how to do it right now. Aaargh!!! Peri-brain!

Just to add - I didn't get on with beta-blockers because they made me feel a bit tight across the chest. (The feeling lasted about half an hour). In itself I wouldn't call it a horrific experience. My resulting panic at the time was to do with me irrationally thinking I would react badly to every medication I ever have to take from now on (I had just had a very bad reaction to stomach meds for gastritis and now the betablockers were disagreeing with me). I was panicking I would never be able to take a medication drug of any type ever again and never be treatable for anything ever!! HA went into overdrive at the time. As Robin says, it is worth trying the betablockers if you feel you want to. They are not that bad, honestly!

Squiggle, you're the best Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. I did do a search on rapid heartbeat, you're absolutely right, many women suffer from this. I suspect that the majority of us have not taken it to the lengths that I have! I read some of my own posts, I just tend to repeat myself. I was recently talking to a friend of mine on PS, she has the same symptoms and hasn't even asked the doctor about it. I don't know what's wrong with me!!! It's as though I keep pushing it until they diagnos me with something terrible. In the meantime, I can't be content with the outcome. They say if it gets worse, beta blockers or an ablasion can be done. They also said it could go away. Of course I don't think about the latter. On top of that, I keep wondering if my ten year old son could have inherited it from me. Probably not, but why not consume myself with more terrible thoughts. It's endless.......
(((HUGS))
K~


RR, my heart goes out to your daughter. To be so young and have to deal with this. From what I understand, she could definitely outgrow it. Have the doctors ever suggested an ablasion? I know it's very common amongst younger patients, being that they don't want to be on betablockers for any length of time. There was a young, 16 year old Olympic gymnast that had it done last year, she did GREAT!!! None of it has returned. I know there are thousands of cases like that. In fact, Prime Minister Tony Blair had it done last year, he's doing great as well.
K~

Karen,

I have 2 young boys of a similar age to your son: aged 8 and 11! I believe most of our various palps issues are down to our hormones. I reckon our boys will escape them. Oh I so know where you are coming from with the irrational thoughts though. I worry about my kids' and Hubby's health as well as my own all the time! I wonder whether you could try that worry-tree or delayed worrying techniques I mentioned on the other thread. My CBT therapist taught me them and they do seem to help me. I'm so glad you are going to get the CBT too!

Karen - also wanted to mention. Part of my CBT treatment has involved helping me deal with uncertainty. We can never ever be sure there isn't a single cancer cell kicking off in our bodies. Are we going to spend our whole lives worrying about this? My therapist & I have talked a lot about quality of life versus quantity.

An example of this: last year I was convinced I had ovarian cancer. No symptoms, just out of the blue one day decided I might have it. I became terrified. Well I had the blood tests from my sympathetic doctor which were negative, but they are far from accurate. The only way of confirming I didn't have it was a full-scale operation. Am I really going to go through that with no symptoms. Answer NO! (I am terrified of operations too!) I just had to learn to live with the uncertainty and I am still here 1 year later. Now I have to do this more often - this problem occurs all the time for me!

Hi Karen,
just to add my bit! I mostly get the skipped beats with short runs of irregular beats thrown in just to freak me out even more! But recently I've been getting more of the racing heart stuff & woke up a few times with slight breathlessness & my heart racing,
As I started to feel hot at the same time I told myself it was just hormones & just lay there feeling my pulse & telling myself that it would soon calm down. I remained as detached as I could from it & used Claire Weekes advice of not adding 'second fear' (which triggers more adrenaline) & within a minute it slowed back down. Although I know how scary it is you need to try to stay calm as otherwise you just keep re-sensitizing yourself & so add more adrenaline. (maybe I need to listen to my own advice!!!) I know how hard it is when you have health anxiety not to immediately jump to the worst case scenario but that is what the CBT should be able to help you with.

Believe me, we know how you feel! I have had various tests too but I still find it hard to stay reassured.
In my 20's when I first suffered from physical effects of anxiety-racing heart- I took beta-blockers & they worked great for me but I understand your reluctance to take them.
Have you started the Claire Weekes book yet? I'm sure you'll find it helps you.
Hope you're feeling better today!
Marchgirl xx

Karen,

My peri madness started in October 2005 with the racing heart waking me up in the middle of the night (it was up around 160). It went on for a few months - I went to the ER the first time it happened (actually, I went the next day) and everything was okay when they did the EKG. I followed up with my own doctor and did the 24 hour holter monitor and of course it didn't race when I had the monitor on. ER doctor chalked it up to anxiety even when I told him this was not a panic attack - I am quite familiar with those....I also have PVC's and PAC's - that started about 12 years ago. I went to 3 cardiologists in a matter of 2 years and they told me I have to live with them....they were not harmful. Now, I'm sitting here with the PVC's happening and they are quite disturbing. I hope that those of us who are suffering so terribly find some relief soon......it's been a long haul for me and I just want to feel like myself again...I pray for that day to come.......for all of us.

Hugs,
Karen

MarchGirl and Kar, I sent you both emails.

As I was vacuuming it occured to me.....why do I spend 80% of my time fretting and feeling anxious about something that only happens once in awhile and lasts for only seconds!? This makes NO sense at all!!! I can't wait to start CBT!

My thought for the day.....

Hi Karen,
I was just reading your post and wanted to let you know that I have these same occurances. I will wake out of a sound sleep, usually at 2 or 3 in the morning with my heart racing like it's going to take off out of my chest! My normal resting heart rate is 64 beats per minute. When these bouts happen my heart is going 140 BPM! I get up, grab the phone (ready to dial 911) and unlock the door so they can get in! Then I pace, breathe slowly, and talk myself thru it. It usually lasts about 5-6 minutes. It always slows down to normal, but I usually feel shakey and generally crappy into the late afternoon. I have only had this happen early in the morning - never during the day or evening. I started to keep track of them and found that they were happening pretty much on a cycle, much like when I had periods ( I had a PARTIAL hysterectomy 16 years ago - I am now 51). This has been going on for about 8 months. The good news is I have not had one this month and it's Dec. 31st! I have had many other symptoms of menopause in the past several years, but did not really know it until I came upon this wonderful site. Just being able to read other women's posts and what they feel and being able to connect with them makes this whole experience easier. I hope you will find it easier to cope as well.

Hi Karen and All,
I get the racing heart too. Mine started in my mid 20's. I believe the first ones were anxiety related. But then I got pregnant with my last child and during the pregnancy the skipped beats and racing heart were an every day occurence. I had all the tests, (24 hr halter, EKG, etc ) and they found nothing. I had my tubes tied when I had my son. I've had racing heart, skipped beats off and on ever since then. I've had many trips to the ER over all of these years, appointments with Dr.'s, cardiologists, etc. I had EKG's, halter monitors, echocardiogram, stress tests, and they find nothing wrong (just benign PVC's). It's the scariest thing. My racing heart has lasted up to over an hour many times, but I probably make it worse by panicking, which you would think I'd learn not to do after 18 years of it all. But I was at the emergency room again in September after not going for years. I'm now 43 and I still get the heart stuff, but now every symptom on the list and others not on the list. I've spent most of my last 18 years scared. I use to see a behavioral therapist who specialized in anxiety/panic disorder. I spent a whole lot of money with no relief. I'm glad it has helped so many others, but unfortunatley, no one has ever been able to convince me that there isn't something terribly wrong with me, (especially being in my 40's now and have gained weight, I convince myself that I have clogged my arteries), until I found this site and know I'm not alone. I just try to ignore it now and tell myself that if I'm still alive after all these years of this, that it'll just pass. Once in a while I still panic, but I have xanax for those times, and that helps. God Bless You All, hang in there. I also pray this will be over for us all soon!!
Faith

I'm there with all of you. Heart palpitations to me have meant skipped beats - which don't bother me so much anymore - fast - and I mean FAST heartbeats (esp in the middle of the night) - I've gone to the Emergency room more than once because of these - in an absolute panic - for me it's been like - I feel my heart beating fast - and I all of a sudden feel like something else is coming - I get this feeling of dread and panic and then - ka-THUMP - there it is - everything is deleted from my mind - and then ka-THUMP again - and I turn the car around and head back to the emergency room - I feel this ka THUMP, ka THUMP and I'm there in the emergency room - and everyone says - well it looks okay to me - and I say (ka-THUMP) don't you see that? They say - well the EKG looks okay - and I say - don't you see my blood pressure skyrocketing for no reason - they say - blood pressure does that - it's not a big deal - we'll send the report to your doctor - and my doctor says - we'll put you on a 24 hour Holter monitor and click when you feel your heart "bumping" as you say - and I do - and a couple of weeks go by as they analyze the data - and my doctor says "There's nothing wrong that we can see" - "Your heart looks fine". To be honest with all of you - I feel like an idiot flipping hyochondriac baby. I'm scheduled to go in for yet another Holter moniter tomorrow - and I'm thinking to myself - what's the point? I'm cancelling - I'm tired of going through the same crap over and over again - It's time for me to take charge of everything - and take the advice of the ladies here. I'm not going to get help from GP's. By the way - I'm so grateful for what I'm able to access on this site!

jillymac

just a thought - can you feel your skipped beats on your wrist/ neck pulse? I can! Surely if we can feel them there a holter monitor should be able to pick them up!

I get the racing heart .. with an occaisional missed beat.. just to scare me more. Last night was just awful. Woke up at three in the morning. . had a pain in my head and then the heart started up. Blood Pressure was at 191/114... pulse at 130.. earlier in the day it had been 118/77 and pulse at 77. I woke hub up because i thought for sure i would be going to the er.. but after a bit it eased up.But im still dizzy .. and forget the stairs ..starts the pounding immediatley. (SP) And does anyone get the heavy numb feeling in your back of your head? sue

Good morning ladies~


Oh how my heart goes out to all of you, I know how scarey it can be. You have all mentioned EKGs, Echos, Holters, Stress, just curious if any of you ladies have had the Event Recorder for thirty days. With that they can see exactly where in your heart the palps begin and end, the holter does not do that. I know all of our hearts are in great condition, however; if you have the Event Recorder then you can reassure yourselves one more time and know the palps are starting from a harmless place and ending there too.

I have to say the Magnesium and now Effexor has alleviated most of the palps, I feel like a different person. At least if I do get them, i don't panic like I used to. It was funny, I went out when some ladies last night that I hadn't seen in awhile. After telling them about the Effexor, I learned that three of them were on Effexor and one was on Paxil for the same things.

Hang-in-there ladies, we're all in this together!!!
(((HUGS)))
K~

Hi everyone,

Count me in for the palps, skipped beats and racing heart! I used to have this very often and it was one of the more troublesome symptoms. I finally got to the point (after er visits, echo's, ekgs etc) that I said to h*ll with it. If I die, then I die. I even told my husband "Don't revive me, I don't want to see Part 2)" Guess what? After I quit worrying and scaring myself everytime it happened, it pretty much quit happening. I get em every now and then these days, but I don't worry about it. I think it was Squiggle who said that you can't worry about every thing all the time.

Also, our bodies release so many hormones and chemicals into our blood streams when we are stressed, or scared, or worried...adrenaline, cortisol etc which create the circle of (stress-symptoms-more stress-more chemical reaction-more stress- more symptoms)...and around and around it goes.

From experience, I know it is easier said than done...but if you can just try to not worry so much about it (once the doc has given the all clear) then eventually you are able to think "Ok, this is no big deal" and it really does settle down. And, even if you have the skipped beats, palps, racing etc...you don't make it worse by prolonging the event by adding stress chemicals.

Aside from the fact that stress depletes our immune systems, these chemicals can make our hearts race, raise our blood pressure, make us dizzy, lightheaded, feel faint, dry mouth, sweat, shaky, breath faster and just cause a host of other unpleasent physical symptoms.

As an assistant to cancer researchers, I know that there are cancerous cells in every person's body and that our immune systems do away with them on a daily basis. It isn't until our immune systems become run down and depleted that they are unable to wipe out the abnormal cells and cancer can take hold. Stress greatly depletes our immune systems and we add so much stress by constantly worrying. I am guilty of this myself. However, I am getting much better at stopping the stress I cause by worrying so much about the symptoms I have from peri.

I guess in a sense I have made some peace with myself regarding the various disturbing symptoms of peri. I finally realized that I was waiting for this to all "go away". It may never go away or some may come and go. Who knows? So, I may as well just invite them to stay and if they go, great! If they don't, then the best I can do is live with them (sort of a truce lol) and do my best to find sources of comfort or relief. But, without the extra burden of worry, worry, worry.

So stop worrying and take care of your immune systems, ladies.

Hugs,
Susan