Rapid Heart Rate

[millieking1]

I am a 31 year old female. I just gave birth 12 weeks ago to a little girl. Last week they put me on a new birth control yaz. After a couple of days I noticed some weird sensation in my chest like someone was knocking the breath out of me. The next day I woke up really sick to my stomache and having the same sensation. I went to the dr and she said my resting heartrate was 130-140. I then went on to the er where my resting heartrate was 118 when I sat up it was 140 then if I stood up it went to 170 but my blood pressure stayed normal. I stayed 2 days and they ran all sorts of test and could find nothing! Is that normal? Could it have been the birth control? I was thinking that maybe it contained some sort of a diuretic. JThey gave me a beta blocker but my blood pressure was to low to take it. Any suggestions. By the way my heartrate has been 80-90 since i came home-i quit the birth control.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

Congratulations.
The time immediately after giving birth can be tricky.  Your hormones are different now than they have probably ever been.  It is difficult to say for sure what the cause was and hopefully it won't come back.

Changes in heart rate from sitting to standing are usually a result of changes in blood pressure.  Heart rate changes like that are certainly not in the normal range.  If your heart rate has normalized after stopping the medication, the medication could certainly be to blame.  It is also possible that you were getting premature beats from the increased hormones and this scared you enough that your heart rate increased.

I am sure they checked your thyroid and did an echocardiogram. If they were normal, that is reassuring.

If your heart rate is back to normal off the beta blocker, you have a normal echocardiogram and EKG, I am at a lose for a definite cause, but it sounds like it has resolved.  In medicine, sometimes it is better to get a diagnosis because that means the issue has resolved.

Let your doctor know if there are any changes but it sounds like you are doing well again.  Try to get some rest and enjoy this new time.  It is wonderful!

Thanks for posting.

[millieking1]

Thanks so much, they did do a n echocardiogram and checked my thyroid. It was all normal. I stopped the medicine too. I searched the internet and found that it contained a diuretic so maybe I was dehydrated and paniced a little. Thanks so much!!