heart palpitations and unintended weight loss

[JenniferK79]

I gave birth to a wonderful baby girl about 5 months ago.  I am breast-feeding, which I know contributes to weight loss, but I have lost an extreme amount of weight.  I was 145 prior to getting pregnant, I'm now 130.  I'm not currently exercising and I've been making sure to eat regular meals.  A couple of months ago, I started feeling heart palpitations.  My PCP ordered a 24-hour holter monitor and she said while it indicated that I had a few palpitations, that this was normal and I may just be feeling them more than others do for some reason.  I've also developed a pinching/tugging pain in my upper left chest, that usually lasts for 15-20 minutes and also occur independent of the palpitations.  In the last week, I've started getting headaches fairly regularly, which typically last for a few hours.  Then, this morning and last night, it seems my heart rate sped up temporarily, for maybe 20-30 minutes.  I've had anxiety issues in the past, but I can't attribute the weight loss to anxiety and it worries me that I seem to have symptoms that seem to be cardiac in nature.  Not sure where I should go from here.  I go back and forth between trusting my PCP and wondering if I should demand more tests.

[achillea]

If you have previous anxiety issues, having a baby (in my experience) might just increase them.  After all, not only is your body dealing with huge physiological changes related to maternity, but you yourself are now responsible for another human's very life.

However, thyroid disorders are pretty common during and not long after pregnancy.  Again in my experience, thyroid malfunction can cause unintentional weight loss, ectopic beats--and profoundly affect your mental/emotional status.  One old endocrine textbook I had stated that more thyroid disorders were diagnosed on the psychiatrist's couch than in the internist's office!

Your doc can order a couple of thyroid tests to check out this possibility, and you would be justified in asking him to do so.

However, if your thyroid turns out to be normal, and your cardiac tests indicate that your heart is healthy,  the next thing to do is see a good shrink about your cardiac fears.  Some of us are tremendously sensitive to meaningless 'noise' that our bodies produce, and the fear this generates can literally ruin our lives--AND those of our families.

At some point, we have to believe it when specialists tell us we are OK.  After all, what reason is there to distrust your doctors?  What possible reason could they have for misleading their patients?  And who else in the neighborhood has actually spent years studying the physiology of the heart?  

There is an outside chance that your symptoms might be due to something like thyroid problems, but If you are repeated told you are physically healthy, you must, for the happiness and security of your baby, attend to any irrational fears by getting professional help.

[Kellyk1983]

I have had the same issues after the birth of my son. I had my son mast May 2011 and about 4 months after he was born I started to get heart palpitations and elevated heart rates from time to time with or without anxiety. I have had every test known to man. I had 2 echos,2 loop monitors, a holter monitor, EKG's and blood tests. They didn't even catch any palps on my tracings! Ugh!! But all looked normal and healthy. I don't trust any of the results even though my doctor is great,but that's my anxiety. I am convinced I'm going to drop dead any second. I didn't lose much weight right away, I didn't lose but mine took work and time. I hope you can find some peace with these palps as I have been having them for over a year and I'm still terrified of them. Even though anyone will tell you that in a healthy and structurally sound heart they are harmless. I'm here if you ever want to chat :)