Very Odd Asymptomatic Bradycardia

I have asymptomatic bradycardia.  I mean, there are NO symptoms.  When I exercise, my heart rate increases normally.  Usually after my heart rate returns to normal, it goes into the bradycardia for a few minutes - or less.  I've found that I can shorten the bradycardia right away by deep breathing or just holding my breath for a few seconds while my heart starts to beat normally again.  The beat pattern of the bradycardia I have is LUB-DUB, instead of regular beats.  It can last for up to five minutes and there are no other symptoms except the slowed heart rate of sometimes under 40 beats per minute.  My normal resting heart rate has been around 60 for many, many years now and every blood pressure check I have ever had has been normal (80 or less).  Sometimes the arrhythmia kicks in after I lift something heavy - like right away.  Sometimes I can be sitting at my desk typing for a couple hours and when I stand up, stretch, or change my position, it can start in without warning. I think there is some parallel between testosterone and the arrhythmia.  When I have sex, I sometimes have the arrhythmia starting about a minute after the orgasm if I haven't had any sex for four days or more.  If I haven't had sex for a few days (or longer), the arrhythmia can come on spontaneously as I am going about my day-to-day business and then that won't happen for at least 1-2 days after the sex. I don't really have a family history of heart disease.  My dad had a valve repair 8 years ago but they said it was due to his rheumatic fever as a child (prolapsed mitral, with 40% regurgitation....they got to him just before it got bad, but he had NO symptoms, just like me.)  Oh yeah - I've had this for 8 years now, off and on.  Some days I have no arrhythmia, sometimes I have it 4-5 times a day.  I haven't gotten to the point where I've gotten scared or felt a need to go to the ER or anything.  Anything you can suggest??

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

I would probably put a heart monitor on you so you can trigger the recorder when  you have symptoms.  Some of the symptoms sound vagal -- the branch of your nervous system that would decrease  your heart rate.  Deep breaths and lifting are known to cause bradycardia in the right condtitions.

I do not know of any correlation between bradycardia and testosterone.

It does not sound dangerous but I would put on a monitor to figure out what the rhythm is.

I hope this helps.