I had these wretched things for several years, starting in peri. The episodes lasted for a hour or so at a time, on & off day & night. Felt very scary, as there often seemed an extra long gap before the beat resumed, giving the unnerving impression the heart was never going to start up again! Sometimes the sensation of irregularity came with flushes and night sweats, sometimes apparently out of the blue, often when resting or waking me from sleep. Sometimes the heart seemed to be racing with the irregularity, but often the pace was unchanged.
Had several ecgs, treadmill test, ultrasound & a 24-hr holter monitor, which confirmed they were harmless ectopics. Good to know, but it doesn't entirely take away the anxiety they naturally induce. Beta blockers didn't stop them, but did blunt the sensation of each beat.
The ectopics continued to some extent right up till I began HRT, 3 years post-meno, then stopped to my great relief, though this also coincided with a change to thyroid medication, which muddied the waters a bit. They returned twice, after changes of HRT regime, which seems to confirm that for me at least, they are probably due to gynae hormone disturbance.
As already mentioned in this thread, they are notorious as a menopause symptom & a gynae who'd previously worked in Cardiology, once told me many women had presented at the clinic with palpitations, for whom no abnormality could be found, but they were all menopausal. The most reassuring thing I've heard about them - pity it didn't come till way post-meno, long after I'd had to learn to live with them!
If any of you are having them for the first time & have not yet had them checked out, it might be wise to do this - they are almost certainly nothing to worry about, but HRT regimes or other meds might need tweaking, or there might just be something else going on (eg an undiagnosed thyroid condition) that once identified & treated, could quickly resolve them. Hope there's something reassuring in this - I know how unpleasant & worrying they can be!
