更年期的心pal可能会导致困扰，可能表示严重的健康问题|bob体育在线日常健康

Even though menopause is an inevitable fact of life for women, most aren’t aware of all the changes in their bodies, brains, and overall health that the transition will bring. Vasomotor symptoms, such as hot flashes, are widely recognized, but there are dozens of othermenopausal symptomsthat a woman can experience.

Not All Menopausal Symptoms Are the Same, in Terms of Risk or Discomfort

And although no menopause symptom can be considered unimportant, heart palpitations can be particularly concerning as they could possibly signal a more serious underlying health issue. Menopausal palpitations are described as loud, racing, or skipped heart beats, flip-flops, fluttering, or pounding that occurs with or without dizziness or lightheadedness.

“Palpitations are not only quite common, but also underdiagnosed and understudied; when I’ve talked to some of my colleagues about heart palpitations, they’ve been a little bit shocked about what we still don’t know,” saysJanet S, Carpenter, PhD, RN，印第安纳波利斯印第安纳大学护理学院研究副院长，以及研究心pal的研究的主要作者。卡彭特博士说：“目前尚不清楚为什么会发生，我们不知道它们是否与心电图变化有关，我们不知道她们是否增加了女性患心血管疾病的风险。”

心电图或心电图是测量心脏中的电信号以检查的测试心脏病的迹象。

更年期，荷尔蒙和心脏病风险

When a woman is still having her menstrual period,雌激素和孕酮levels rise and fall during different times of the month,according to the Cleveland Clinic。When a woman enters perimenopause, the lead up to绝经, there is a significant decrease in雌激素production that is associated with an increase in heart rate and an increased frequency in palpitations and nonthreatening arrhythmias.

Perimenopause can begin 8 to 10 years before menopause; during the last one to two years of this transition, the drop in estrogen accelerates and many women can begin to experience menopausal symptoms.

Menopause is diagnosed in hindsight, after a woman has gone without a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months. Estrogen declines even further during this phase and irregular heartbeats and palpitations can occur, according toresearch published in the journalClimacteric。

Although menopause doesn’t cause heart disease, the risk for developing心脏疾病goes up with the onset of menopause,根据美国心脏协会（AHA）。One factor that may contribute is the decline in estrogen, which is believed to have benefits for the inner layer of the artery wall, helping to keep blood vessels flexible.

Heart Symptoms Often Minimized in Women

It’s not totally clear why heart palpitations in perimenopausal or menopausal women are understudied and underrecognized compared with other menopausal symptoms, says Carpenter. “It could partly be due to the fact that there’s been a historic bias against women in cardiology. Women’s symptoms often aren’t believed or listened to in the same way that men’s symptoms are,” she says.

At the same time, symptoms of menopause have often been trivialized as “no big deal,” she says. “Heart palpitations are at this intersection of these two things. If people have been attributing the palpitations to menopause there may be a general feeling that these will probably go away, don’t worry about it,” she says.

RELATED:临床医生表现出性别，种族偏见在心力衰竭患者的治疗决策中

Are Menopausal Heart Palpitations Just Part of a Hot Flash?

另一个原因,可以波形的心悸rrecognized is that some previous research has grouped heart palpitations as part of a hot flash, rather than its own symptom, says Carpenter. “There are some studies that define hot flashes in terms of heat, sweating, and heart racing or pounding, suggesting that palpations occur at the same time as the hot flashes,” she says.

“However, when I talk to women, these palpitations are often separate from the hot flashes; they’re feeling these when they lay down at night or in the middle of the day- sort of odd times that aren’t related to the hot flashes,” says Carpenter. This suggests that palpitations is its own symptom, separate from hot flashes, she adds.

Millions of Women Could Experience Heart Palpitations Related to Menopause

詹妮弗·刘易（Jennifer Lewey），医学博士，MPH, assistant professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and director of Penn Women’s Cardiovascular Program, both in Philadelphia, agrees with Carpenter’s assessment, saying, “Although I see many menopausal women who present with heart palpitations, there isn’t a lot of literature explaining what the prevalence is, what sort of risk factors there are for it, or even understanding why it happens.”

The existing research on palpitations in menopause indicates that it is a common symptom, and anywhere from 18.6 to 46.8 percent of women will experience them, according toresearch published in the journalMenopause。

Midlife Women with Insomnia, Depression, and Higher Stress Are More Likely to Experience Palpitations

Carpenter and colleagues published a在2020年12月发行的研究妇女健康杂志that looked at 759 women who were perimenopausal and postmenopausal and had vasomotor symptoms, meaning that they were experiencing hot flashes 14 or more times a week and the hot flashes were bothersome or severe on four or more days or nights per week.

Investigators found that on average about 1 in 4 women reported palpitation distress which they could rate from “not at all” to “a lot” of bother. “Although the palpitations were fairly common, they didn’t cause severe distress in a lot of women,” says Dr. Lewey, who was not involved in this research. “Only about 5 percent of women said that they had moderate distress and 1.5 percent said they had severe distress from the palpitations,” she says.

根据刘易（Lewey）的说法，这似乎是一小部分女性，但是如果您考虑成千上万的妇女经历围绝经期的某个阶段或每年的绝经过渡，那么这种症状实际上确实会影响大量女性。

“This study does a nice job of characterizing the problem and how common it is. I think a lot of women don't expect to have heart palpitations as a symptom of perimenopause or menopause, and they can be surprised and sometimes scared when it does happen,” she says.

Researchers also found that the likelihood of women reporting palpitation distress was higher in those with worseinsomnia, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and menopausal quality of life issues.

中年的心pal可以成为女性心脏病严重的迹象吗？

In many cases, palpitations aren’t cause for concern and will go away on their own,根据Penn Medicine。However, there are instances where someone with heart palpitations does have an underlying heart condition or discovers underlying heart disease that was previously undiagnosed, says Lewey.

除了心脏病外，呼吸症也可能是心脏瓣膜异常的征兆heart attack,心脏衰竭, orcardiomyopathy，根据Penn Medicine。心肌病是心脏肌肉不同条件的集合，可以导致心肌变硬，变稠，稀薄或充满身体不应该存在的物质，根据疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）。

If you’re concerned about heart palpitations, it’s important to talk with your doctor. If heart palpitations come with signs of a cardiac event — such as loss of consciousness; chest pain;difficulty breathing;一个或两臂，背部，颈部，下巴或胃中的疼痛或不适；nausea或呕吐；或头晕 - 您应该致电911并立即到医院，according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

RELATED:40及以后的健身：关于中年运动需求的知识

How to Talk With Your Doctor About Heart Palpitations

刘易（Lewey）强调，如果您有自己的心脏症状或尤其令人毛骨悚然的心脏症状，与您的医疗保健提供者交谈的重要性。刘易斯说：“对于这项研究中的妇女，她们的心plation症中的中度至严重困扰，我很好奇她们中有多少人实际上与他们的医疗保健提供者交谈，因为我们知道妇女不太可能寻求护理。”

她补充说，有时可能只需打个快速电话，或者可能需要进一步评估，但是与您的医生有关这些症状的沟通很重要。

How to Monitor Menopausal Symptoms, Collect Info to Share With Your Doctor

自我监控并跟踪您的心pal和其他更年期症状Carpenter说，当您与提供者谈论心脏呼吸时，可以帮助您清楚。

Pay attention to the time of month and time of day that they are occurring. Make a note of anything that seems to bring it on, such as exercise, smoking, or drinking.
Carpenter建议，还要跟踪其他更年期症状。她说：“如果您承受着很大的压力或失眠，那可能会影响呼吸困难。”
If you’re still having your period,track your cycle。您的激素may be influencing when you experience the palpitations.
If you’re concerned about the palpitations, make sure you contact your healthcare provider right away and advocate for yourself.