Resting heart rate and the ladies cycle!

[HelsBells81]

Do any of the other ladies notice a trend between resting heart rate and the monthly cycle?? This is my 3 month track of heart rate and shows massive changes depending on where I am in the month! Is this

normal?

[writingwitch92]

Except that article is saying the opposite of what is being  observed here. It’s saying the RHR is highest during ovulation not lowest

[KelBo1]

I get it. Mine varies about 9 bpm throughout the month.  I understand your frustration. 

[KodamaHugger]

Glad I'm not crazy - this is really helpful because, like others have said, what I found on the internet is not what is happening to me! My resting heart rate peaks just before and at the start of my period, then drops over the next week back to normal. Even when I'm sleeping my heart rate is up to 10 bpm higher than what I consider to be my true average.

[sawilliams]

Does anyone physically feel these changes? I used to think I was having increased HR, and feeling it, from anxiety each month, became predictable and now I'm wondering if it's just increased HR that I'm perceiving as anxiety.

[Drcats]

Mine goes up too and rises and falls like a wave over the month. Ovulation seems to be peak week for me. Then actually cycle week it lowers each of the five days pretty much, I’ve wondered about the anxiety too, I actually wondered about it sort of creating a cycle - being aware of a higher heart rate making me feel a bit more anxious. I think seeing these cycles is reassuring in a lot of ways but also makes me realise how much fitness research for ‘people’ is done on just white men. 

[Eels83]

Yes - exactly this! Around 2 days prior to menstruating it peaks, then begins to drop again!

[Sailormoon73]

Well…. It definitely seems like we’ve gathered enough evidence to show this is normal for women! Not sure whether 10 beats per minute difference is normal…but the general pattern seems to be.

No one else has said they share my other symptoms though: heart rate going up 10-15 beats as soon as I fall asleep and taking all night to come back down to resting rate. The doctors I’ve spoken too won’t take me seriously and you can tell they stop listening as soon as you want to show them Fitbit data. They’re honestly clueless about this stuff …. 😞

Sent from my iPhone

[ph6704]

 

Yes, I had a very strong cycle.  I ovulate around 73 and am around 83 the day before my period starts.  So it’s a 10 point cycle.

However, I am 55 now so I find that I’m in the low 80s for long periods of time (not enough progesterone?).  I was down to 76 on July 12 (today is August 9) and felt ovulation cramps but I haven’t had a period yet.  I’ve been in the low 80s since July 17 with a max of 83.  

Also, I had mild COVID at the end of April and that really ramped up my RHR. So things might not be back to normal yet.

edited to add a photo of a typical month

[sawilliams]

As for the medical community taking us seriously...positive followed by negative:

I've had a female cardiologist and she would actually inquire about my cycle, I had a male psychiatrist who did  as well and we'd tailor my medication around certain days of the month; my new psychiatrist (female) took it a little skeptical and only agreed as it was previous treatment. I met an OBGYN that was a psychiatrist as well when I was pregnant...I live in a relatively large metro area - I can't find another within 200+ miles.

However, I was hospitalized for a variety of things when I was in my late teens and then syncope (that looked like seizures but cardiac related), none of those specialists (male) asked anything even though now I can track as more likely during certain times of cycle and my heart rate is also somewhat of a predictor.

As for my anxiety, I've learned it's directly tied (unless situational) to my cycle....BUT my awareness of higher heart rate increases my perception of the severity (mine increases a lot). It sucked to spend 15 years on anti-anxieties I could have avoided if I'd been coached differently.

[Sailormoon73]

I’m a qualified nutritional therapist and I totally hear again and again about sooo many things which are linked to hormonal imbalances. Almost all medical research historically has only been conducted with men, so there are still a lot of gaps in the conventional medical system’s understanding of how women’s bodies work.
Hey ho… they may catch up eventually!

Sent from my iPhone

[biffie96]

I’ve literally been asking the question if your cycle has anything to do with your heart rate increase and found this thread so it’s obviously a very common thing which is brilliantly reassuring, I’ll be honest though, I am very unfit. 🤣🤣

I’m not overweight or anything I’m only 57 kg and 27 years old non-smoker, however the second my period start my heart rate will sit between 65 to 70bpm which is amazing for me. 

In the week to 5 days leading up to my period, as I am currently in now, I’m sat here with a resting heart rate of 92. 

Been checked over by a cardiologist had ECG an echo x-ray bloodwork not anaemic the lot really I’m just obviously very unfit or very sensitive to hormones 😭😭 

[oathay]

Mine does exactly this, as well

[Tanya82]

How did you know that you were pregnant? Did your heart rate keep rising? I think I ovulated monday my rhr was 66, tue it was 67, wed it was 68 today its gone down to 66.. just wondering r my chances of pregnancy gone?

[Fraggle5]

Does this feature of 3 months view still exist? I've notice my Resting HR drops to 48 bpm the week before my period... I'm exhausted, dizzy, and miserable 😞 

[mariposa554]

Another 10bpm monthly variation lady here 🙋‍:female_sign: I have very irregular cycle length but this is actually a pretty reliable indicator, it’s reassuring that others see this much variation too. As a data nerd, I typed my values into excel to get the long term graph I wanted (pink line = first day)