Hi, everyone,
I just wanted to thank you all for having helped me enormously already-- I found this website this morning and have spent hours scrolling through your stories and comments, and want to thank you all for sharing. I've already learned so much!
By way of self-introduction, I'm a 56 year old single mother of three in the UK who mistakenly thought she had just *sailed* through menopause at 52 with few-- if any-- symptoms, aside from some sleep disruption (hard to stay asleep now for more than 4-5 hours). I began HRT about a year later (about three years ago?) with a low-dose pill of bioidentical hormones, the brand name of which I can no longer recall. A few months later, the NHS stopped offering that particular medication, and the pharmacist gave me Elleste Duet Conti instead. Four days later, that triggered a powerful (but thankfully very brief) episode of depression, so my doctor then prescribed low-dose Premarin and Utrogestan, which I have been taking now for about a year (one 0.625 mg Premarin and 100 mg. Utrogestran, nightly).
I started having heart palpitations and anxiety/panic attacks and night terrors at about the same time, but never connected the two. I stopped drinking all caffeine, tried to get my heart rate into the target range for 30 minutes a day, but that didn't seem to solve the problem, which gradually got worse. I tried meditation, yoga (hence my user name!), deep breathing, even EFT (tapping). Nothing worked. When it got very bad (heart palpitations every 10 minutes or so all day long?!) about two months ago, I was put on beta-blockers, which helped (but also made it impossible to get my heart rate anywhere near my targeted range during exercise). I dosed myself down on the beta-blockers gradually and came off them about two weeks ago, but have been struggling with irregular heart beats-- very uncomfortable!-- ever since.
On Friday evening at bedtime, I realised I was on my last Utrogestran tablet just as we were entering the bank holiday weekend-- so I've been off it for two days.
I woke up this morning and emailed to refill the prescription, but, honestly, I realised I felt better than I've felt in MONTHS, possibly YEARS. No heart palpitations, no night terrors, no panic attacks. I felt like my old self again-- happy, energetic, optimistic. I even had a cup of decaffeinated coffee (which I've not been able to do in months, because even decaff has traces of caffeine in it) to celebrate!
I found this forum because I Googled "Utrogestran" and "heart palpitations." And...voila! I know some of you think it's wonderful, but I can see that some of you have had irregular heartbeats and worse.
Honestly, I never connected these symptoms before; I just assumed the anxiety and heart issues were a part of getting older, and my doctor never mentioned this as a possible side effect of the HRT. So, thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences, it was like a huge weight lifted from my shoulders to know that I don't have a heart condition, and that I'm not suffering from chronic anxiety as I age (necessarily).
I'll be ringing my local NHS practice in the morning and requesting a Utrogestran replacement, if possible. If I can't get one that works, I might ask whether I could dose on and off with the progesterone (perhaps every other day?) or see what other options are possible.
So, thanks again, all of you-- I'm really grateful that I found you!
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Topic: New member who thought she was just sailing along... (Read 1072 times)