Hi Lilli22 I UNDERSTAND. If you have not had your heart tested with an echocardiogram, I would consider that on my high priority list. This way you will rule out any heart disease. (Remember: Heart disease is the number one killer of women. Now that I have scared the daylights out of you, take a deep breath and keep reading. I KNOW what it feels like to suddenly out of the blue start having irregular heartbeats. April 11 2007 my world, as I knew it, came crashing down, when early one morning I stood up from my desk, climbed the stairs and when I reached the top I could not breath, my heart was pounding in my ears,my thigh muscles were quivering and I was near fainting. I am a retired nurse. I calmly found my blood pressure cuff and noted that both B/P and Heart Rate was rapidly accelerating. I called the rescue squad. Long story short, I was sent to a cardiologist where they proceeded to do a 24 hour holter monitor test. Diagnosis: non-specific tachycardia (rapid heart rate) that is "not to be concerned with." August 2007, I found myself back in the ER with the exact same symptons. This time my cardiologist ran the Echo. My heart is in fine working condition. While laying there having the test, I had a nice conversation with the technician who is about 47 and a very healthy runner. She told me she too has non-specific tachycardia and her heart will race up to 177 beats when she is sitting still and then will immediately drop back down to her normal resting heart rate. She works in the cardiology department and there is no reason for her racing heart, other than the theory that has yet to be "proven" by what appears to be an ignorant medical research society. That theory? Estrogen flucuation. If you go to reputable websites you can read this theory.. irregular heartbeats are connected to estrogen flucuation..there is just no proof. As far as your herbal usage I think it is wonderful that you are open to other means of treatment, however I have found that sometimes the very herbs we take can have a negative effect. By taking so many one would never know which one could have that effect. I do know from speaking with other ladies that Don Quai has negative side effects for some. I also know from personal experience that taking yam extract natural progesterone can have a negative side effect too. What I am saying is: I believe if I wasn't sure an herb was working I would want to know which ones were and how would you go about finding that out? By eliminating one at a time..just a suggestion. But first I would have that echo..just another suggestion and then if your tests are fine..perhaps you might need your thyroid medication adjusted. My mother had thyroid disease and she had to have her medication adjusted many times over her lifetime. That little "butterfly" at your throat can make ones heart flip flop unmercifully.It is such a powerful mechanism that is so readily overlooked by the medical profession. Now for what I do..sometimes I am like my name "serenely frantic" meaning I may look calm on the outside but on the inside I am going batty with the racing heart...but now that I know it is "the change" and I know that I am not going to die...I exercise..eat right...dropped my coffee to a small cup in the a.m., stay away from simple carbs, colas, negative people, anything containing stimulants, (over the counter cough, cold, or even prescription drugs) I also take time for me. It is a MUST as it appears that irregular heart beats are the norm for a lot of peri and post menopausal women. Now it appears that you are an educated researcher and advocate for yourself, so please make sure you have a doctor who takes you seriously. If they do not then it is time to move on. Hope this has been of some help and that I was not too blunt.

My palpitations also come back or are worse during times of stress, but the problem is that when the stress is over, they don't go away. I've read that we make cortisol during stress and it takes time for the cortisol to come down to normal levels. Catherinet, I also do excessive research and it makes me nuts because I found that ALL our hormones are related to another is some way. The only thing that I know for sure from all the research is that it gives me even more stress. lol I was lucky enough to have a copy of my bloodwork when I initially went to the doc having terrible palps. My FSH and estradiol levels were very low, well within POSTmenopausal range, but my progesterone was only 1 pt. within POSTmenopausal range. I'm trying to understand the normal ratio, but since they fluctuate over the month according to our cycles, plus the fact that all women are different, it's hard to make a comparison. I'm fairly certain that my palp problem is due to the wide percentage of estradiol to progesterone. I'm now looking for natural estrogen supplements to go along with my mag/calcium and potassium.

Hi nannie! I don't usually look at this site but I just had a hysterectomy in July so I was wondering around looking for information. Before I had my hysterectomy I'd had a very heavy period for about 6 weeks. I was willing to put up with anything to not have surgery. That was a mistake. I lost so much blood that my hemoglobin dropped to 6, I beleve the low end of normal is 11. I was in a great deal of pain and couldn't really do anything. Too worn out, out of breath and in so much pain I couldn't move. I ended up in the hospital and got 2 units of blood and then surgery the next day. My uterus was big too but I've had kids so that helped and they where able to do it vaginally. You know you can't go on the way you are now, beleve me I tried hard to keep going thinking it would some how take care of itself. It didn't and it would of been a whole lot better if I had planned this thing out and schedaled things instead of ending up with an emergency situation. I'm 52 so I'm a bit older then you. They gave me a hormone patch which has helped me. I hadn't had any hot flashes or problems with memopause before my surgery but I had them take everything and I sure have had some problems after. I plan to cut the amount of hormone down in the future and eventually get off of the hormones completely. But not now I need to recover first before I can deal with anything more. Well thats my 2 cents!!

Some people get these at night when they lie down to sleep due to stress. If you are in menopause, you need to get these stress hormones metabolized with exercise and balance your endocrine system. Then find a way to avoid stress especially late in the day or evening. If it's due to stress, you may also find yourself depleted of some vitamins and minerals that you need so read up on stress and nutrition. That helped me so much. Still, get your heart checked and do the best you can to eat healthy foods. If you can get 8 hours of quality deep sleep and exercise it means everything to fight menopause symptoms. You absolutely have to change what you eat to support a smoothly functioning endocrine system. The worse it functions, the more and more powerful your symptoms are. I liked these books on balancing and detoxing and the more you know, the better you can help yourself. They sound like diet books but one of the effects of rebalancing and detoxing is losing extra weight and building muscle and bone structure. Even if you don't want to diet, these books will help with understanding symptoms and avoiding getting sick as you learn to help your body balance itself. Please someone add suggestions to my list. I'm just getting started so there are probably some great books to help us all out. Mastering Leptin by Byron J Richards ( My favorite endocrine balancing book) The Fat Flush Plan by Ann Louise Gittleman (good detox book but I use it with the meal spacing 5 rules of the leptin diet from Mastering Leptin. She has some information that's not in the leptin book) Master your metabolism by Jillian Michaels (This one's easy to read and will help you avoid things in everyday life that can mess up your hormones like MSG and high fructose corn syrup. She gives you a list of MSG impostors too so you can identify them on food labels.) I like this book for anyone just getting started. I hate these crazy symptoms too! I hope you feel better soon. Even just making progress cuts down on stress so go forward with confidence every time you make a healthy choice.