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Tachycardia and hormones


  I am an RN and had started having problems with tachycardia approx. 2 years ago.  I went to the ER approx. 5 times for rapid pounding heart rate and chest pain.  My medical Hx includes radiacal neck disection for thyroid ca, hypocalcemia, hypokalemia, hypomagnesemia.  Each time I went in they treated it for something different, once the calcium, the potassium, the magnesium, once even for dehydration.  I started keeping track of these attacks and noticed that almost each ER visit occured between 2 days before menses or the day menses began.
  I have had cardiac enzymes checked - normal; EKG - normal; 24h halter - normal; echo - normal - except the 24h halter did show 3 bouts of tachycardia with a heart rate of 166bpm.
  They diagnosed me with panic and anxiety attacks, and put me on zanax which did not work too well.  I am now on Klonopen, which helps some, but I still notice the tachycardia (sometimes w/palpitations and chest pains).
  My electrolytes are all in normal ranges, but I have noticed that when I wake up and take my pulse in bed, it ranges from 62 - 68.  After I am up for 1/2 hour it will go up to 120 and then will fluxuate throughout the day anywhere from 84 to 110.  Then in the evening, once I have settled down around 9 - 10 p.m. it will drop back down to the low 70's or high 60's.  Around the time of my period, it seems to get worse.
  The psychiatrist has told me that he believes hormones are related to this, and said that he has seen this in some women who are premenipausal (approx 4 -5 years before the onset of menopause) and that it lasts approx. 2 years after sessation of mensus.  He has sent a letter to my GYN asking her to look into this, that the solution may be sessation of mensus.
  Have you ever heard of this before?  Can anxiety keep a heart rate consistenty high for an entire day, day after day?  (As I had stated it will drop when I am ready to sleep, while I sleep, and upon awakening).  Can hormones be a cause of this?  I have no thyroid and am on thyroid hormones (I was hyperthyroid for a while which was also what they thought was one of the causes but is no longer the case).
  Do you have any suggestions or comments that might help me?  I am very tired of this interfering with my daily life, I never know when it is going to hit, and sometimes I get dizzy, lightheaded, shortness of breath etc.
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Dear  Roselyn,
Thank you for your question.  As you can see by scrolling through this site we get many questions regarding tachycardia and palpitations.  There are many causes of tachycardia and they can be divided roughly into sinus (originating from the sinus node or heart
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A related discussion, tachycardia was started.
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A related discussion, me too was started.
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