Connect
Higher heart rate on HRT gyn unsure of cause
Hi. I’m in my early 50’s, about 4 years into menopause. Started HRT 8 weeks ago, (excited to get some symptom relief and bone/heart/muscle protection) with lowest dose of estradiol patch and a progesterone pill. After four weeks, my GYN increased the patch dose. At the same time I got a bad cold virus. After the main symptoms of the cold virus resolved a week later, I noticed an odd feeling, a little like shaking inside, turns out my resting heart rate is higher. Also get a few occasional spikes in the 110s. My primary said it’s tachycardia, checked and my EKG is normal, echocardigram is normal, basic blood tests for electrolytes etc are normal. GYN said this isn’t a typical side effect. I find that odd because I see a lot of anecdotal evidence online that it is. Anyone else have anything similar and had it resolve without having to change HRT? It causes an overall exhausted feeling, not necessarily sleepy. I chose my GYN recently because she is MSCP, and now I’m questioning everything. Thanks!
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Menopause Support Group.
Connect
Hi Dogmom11,
That's unfortunate that you are having negative reactions to the hormone therapy! I'm 79 and went through menopause at age 48. I ended up in the emergency room after taking one hormone pill! I was very sick! So I didn't take anymore hormone treatments. I went through menopause the old fashioned way by just eating healthy foods and drinking lots of water, juice and tea. After a few weeks things started to ease up and I felt really quite good through the whole time. Prayer also helped. I'll say a prayer for you that things start to improve.
I wish you the best.
PML
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
2 ReactionsI’m not surprised that you can get rapid heart rate from HRT, although I never used it I do remember having palpitations during menopause along with getting over heated, these are normal symptoms caused by harmones so it’s highly possible that the medication can cause the same symptoms.
What is the estradiol strength?
It's hard to know for sure, unless you go off the HRT and see if it resolves. If I could take HRT again I'd go with pellet therapy because it's much more personalized (they will check all your hormone levels, including testosterone, and give you the dose that is right for you). The downside is that it is expensive and generally not covered by insurance. I'd still be on it, but had estrogen-sensitive breast cancer last year so they don't want me on HRT. (HRT does not CAUSE breast cancer but can encourage cancer cell growth). There are a lot of benefits of HRT, so I hope you can get this figured out! (I recommend ALL women use vaginal estrogen cream - it's not absorbed systemically so I can take it, it keeps your lady bits youthful and (more importantly) has been shown to reduce UTIs - which are a big problem as we age, I've seen many women with urosepsis (sepsis from untreated UTI - can be fatal). Good luck to you! If your symptoms worsen, get seen ASAP.
@nurseruby
Any form of bhrt/hrt is usually managed through responding to the results of hormone level blood tests. At least I hope that most providers do that.
Based on current research and standards, it is based much more on symptoms than blood levels (for estradiol and progesterone) because a blood level is only one point on a particular day and hormones can fluctuate a lot. Menopause society and Dr. Mary Claire Haver, MD, MCSP are great resources, they just don’t mention my specific situation. I just wanted to see if others had this symptoms/situation. Thanks for your reply though. 😊
I totally agree with your statement - Mary claire might be ob gyn but also a real grifter w her $43 MILLION dollar business from menopause - she was ripe for the right image skinny white women w marketing and backing behind the scenes don’t be fooled. I’m 62.5 last period 53 in menopause 54 and back in 2018 my gyn couldn’t even get progesterone covered by my insurance united health care - LABS do matter period across the board for women - Mayo is conventional medicine and Menopause Society formerly NAMS is totally disregarding the facts evidence on how to treat women with reproductive care from perimenopause to menopause and everything in between w SO many women getting hysterectomy’s when they’re not offering alternative options in treatment. Menopause Society still says only women w uterus need progesterone SO not true - we need it no matter what for systemic reasons. I started 0.050 Dottie Patch 100 mg oral Progesterone and Vag Creme April 29 2026 within 1 week I felt a positive impact and in 3 weeks my body composition was incredible - I workout weights cardio tennis and overall my waist went down gut improvrd lean more muscle SLEEP was best ever and then all of the sudden 1st week August 2026 something was off I wasn’t sure - then patch shortage another real issue again for women huh ???? My sleep has been worse than ever no recovery as my resting heart rate is staying 50 or 52 not going into rest mode that body needs not just hours in bed and waking at 3 or 4 am hard to fall back asleep feeling anxious and my NP at Medstar Baltimore is clueless !!! She was only taught to prescribe for symptoms - last night I took 2 100 mg progesterone to see if that helped - I feel more rested but my numbers on Oura ring show not recovered HR lowest 52 and less deep sleep - it’s a frigging nightmare trying to research myself and find REAL docs who honestly are older who understand biochemistry in body to be of service to women. Remember before the flawed women’s study that ruined everything for women in 2000 on gyns were informed about hormones for women in mid life and those docs became frustrated like mine who could not get insurance companies to pay for the services labs visits and prescriptions they knew their patients needed….just look back at the INCREDIBLE increase in SSRIs w women being prescribed over what they really needed HORMONES!
@denisedkb64
Let's not forget the importance of testosterone in our hormone replacement quest.