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9314345 tn?1409636047

What's wrong with my heart?

I just started my period yesterday and ever since I began it my heart has been acting a little funny. I only notice it when I am laying down. My heart beats normally, then BOOM, it pounds really hard, and only once. I tried controlling my breathing but nothing. I can still breathe fine, and I am not experiencing any pain in my chest except breast tenderness from my menstrual. Please someone help.

~Princess Saturn
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9314345 tn?1409636047
Hey guys, thank you for all your information and help. My heart is rather healthy and I have never ran into any issues with it. This was just a strange thing that has occurred. I sometimes got them throughout my life but for some reason it was happening more often when I laid down.

By the way, I was mentioning menstrual cycle, like my period, not menopause. I'm far away from experiencing menopause.
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Avatar universal
hello,

i get PVCs when I lay down, at times when I am in a vicious cycle of Ectopic beats. very uncomfortable.
you mentioned menopause, my wife used to get these ectopic beats during hers. a lot of mine get worse the more I worry about them. hope this helps some.

best to you
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Avatar universal
PVCs are very common and I have read a few times of women experiencing the onset of pvcs at the start of menopause, so it does sound like monthly hormonal changes could also trigger them. They are easy to identify on an EKG or 24hr monitor and seem to be regarded as benign unless you have other serious heart issues. I get lots most days, sometimes thousands. If you are still concerned I would ask ypur doctor for an EKG or monitor.
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9314345 tn?1409636047
Hello Artaud,

Thank you for the information and it offers me some relief.
It happens several times and only when laying down, sometimes elevating my head helps. Its just a very strange feeling, no pain.
Helpful - 0
257552 tn?1404602554
How often is this occurring? It's common for people to experience premature (ectopic) beats when laying down. There are several beats that are referred to as premature beats. PACs Premature Atrial Contractions and PVCs Premature Ventricular Contractions are the most common two.

Your heart has a pacemaker in the top, and when that pacemaker discharges, other cells, starting in the top of your heart and working to the bottom, contract and forces the blood out of the heart. These cells that can respond to the slight electric current from the heart's pacemaker can, for some reason, cause slight discharges on their own. When that happens, the heart contracts or tries to before it should of. In the case of a PVC, we don't feel the PVC, but the heart's timing has to be reestablished, so there is what is referred to as a compensatory pause. This is quite natural, and as the heart waits for the next normal beat, the heart fills with a little more blood than usual. The boom we feel is the heart pushing out the extra blood. Other types of premature beats can occur, where the heart contracts while full with blood but the valves are not in the state they would be for a normal beat and the boom can be from that.

If you're just having a few throughout the day, this is normal, everyone experiences them time to time. They are more common for some people when laying down. Again, just a few is no problem (and for people that get many, after being examined by a doctor and being told they are benign, for some people even many is not a problem).
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