PERIMENOPAUSE
Palpitations After 40: Could It Be Perimenopause?
A fast, forceful or irregular heartbeat after 40? Understand the possible link with perimenopause and when to seek urgent medical help.
At times your heartbeat may feel faster, forceful, irregular or like it has skipped. Perimenopause can be one reasonable context to discuss, but it is not the only explanation.
1. Can palpitations be linked with perimenopause?
The NHS lists a faster, slower or more noticeable heartbeat among changes that may occur during perimenopause and menopause. Hot flushes may also involve sweating, anxiety or dizziness.
Poor sleep, stress, anxiety, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, medicines, iron-deficiency anaemia, thyroid conditions or heart problems can also contribute.
2. Track the pattern, not only the fear
If there are no emergency symptoms, note the time, duration, what you were doing, what the heartbeat felt like, hot flushes, dizziness, chest pain, breathing, sleep, stress, caffeine, alcohol, medicines and period changes.
Wearable readings can be useful information to bring to a clinician, but they cannot diagnose the cause or delay emergency care.
3. When should you get help?
Arrange a medical assessment if palpitations keep returning, become more frequent, last more than a few minutes, or occur with a personal or family history of heart problems.
Seek emergency help immediately if they do not stop, or occur with chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint or fainting. Seek urgent medical advice even if those warning symptoms have stopped.
This article provides general health education only. It is not diagnosis or an individual treatment plan.