Ok, there is something really funny going on here. I'm also 52!

Seems like 52 is the magic age.

Hi Marie,

Yes, my SFN is idiopathic, but I'm somewhat refusing to accept that diagnosis. I'm still doing whatever test my integrated medicine doc can think of, but she's just about out of ideas.

BCP = Birth Control Pill

I was on them for about 22 years. I changed primary care physicians, and she was very vocal about wanting me off them because of family history of heart disease. I had been thinking about doing it anyway, so I stopped in October. Like I said, I started having trouble in November, and my SFN progressively got worse for the next 3 months or so.

In March I started having horrible PVCs (heart palpitations). I assumed it was anxiety from the discomfort of SFN and just worry over what was wrong. My doctor did a holter monitor test, and I had 1300 PVCs and SPVCs in 24 hours!

It was about this time I started seeing women posting about their SFN starting when they became perimenopausal. I made a quick call to my gyn and even though she was skeptical it would help, she called in a estradiol/progestin script. I started taking it right away, and while I saw no improvement at all with the SFN, those horrible PVCs stopped cold within a couple of days. That alone tells me perimenopause is causing at least of my problems.

Janie

[QUOTE=Marie33;1093559]

For what it's worth, my OB/GYN told me that the heart has estrogen receptors and I too found that my palpitations and racey heart stopped once I went on bio-identical HRT.

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Hi all,
I stumbled across this thread but you have given me something to think about. I am 41 but also in an early peri-menopausal stage.
I have always been very sensitive to my hormonal fluctuations.

I take a low dose of Cymbalta. Only 30 mgs. Been on this for about 6 or so years now. It stops the worst of the hot flashes. It also helps with PN pain a bit. A higher dose would probably give me better relief but all my current symptoms, depression and anxiety, are well controlled at this dose. I have no side effects from the Cymbalta at all that I'm aware of.

ETA: PS: I'm just coming to the end of that magical one year of no period, period. So maybe that has something to do with the hot flashes easing a bit...? Not fluctuating so much as just not there any more. LOL!

That's really interesting. My PN started about the time I started in to peri-menopause. They have yet to find a cause. Of course it would help if I had insurance and/or could afford to see the specialists I need to see to attempt to get a definitive diagnosis. I never noticed an increase in pain around the time of my periods though. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just never made that connection if it did.

I wonder if, in the next few months to a year, I'll see a lessening in symptoms? That would be soooo awesome!

As it happens, I am also coming up to the one year thing. Here's hoping we both experience a lessening of symptoms as the hormones settle. Awesome would only begin to describe it. Lol.