I'm only 19 years old and found out today after a trip to the er for heart palpitations that there is no known cause, all the labs came back fine.

My EKG said sinus tachycardia, which I've had all my life. I've had normal tachy all my life. It also said left atrial enlargement. And my heart beat is irregular. Not majorly, but it's throwing in an extra beat every now and then. Several times an hour lately. I've had the heart palpitations all my life off and on but they were very minor.

I was told not to drink caffeine. I take adderall daily for adhd. I won't stop taking that unless I'm absolutely told to, cause without it I'm a mind->-bleeped-<-. So what did I do when I got home? Took my afternoon dose of adderall and chugged a glass of mountain dew. Between this new thing going on, my gender dysphoria, and everything...I'm a nervous wreck. I just started hormones a month ago and that's going great, but I'm worried about this now plus I need to find a job and ->-bleeped-<-. My life is going great yet bad. I don't know what to do. I'm done being scared or cautious. I've felt really suicidal lately but this sorta scared it out of me. I guess when I die, I die. Sounds stupid coming from a 19 year old guy but with heart problems, I think about death. I'm not going to be cautious constantly and live a half a**d life. I want to take risks, have fun. I've been too cautious all my life and this is what happens. I'm pretty pissed and scared right now...

If anybody knows anything about this heart condition at all, I'd appreciate any info. I'm googling it right now. It could be harmless for all I know. IT might be helped by meds. But from what I'm reading right now, I'm scared to death and I want to either curl into a ball, or do every stupid thing I've ever wanted to do in my life and die by "accident".

I know there's an afterlife. I've seen it. I won't go into that. I'm not afraid to die. But honestly my biggest fear right now is that I'll die before I'm fully transitioned and the thought of that absolutely kills me.

Could this be caused by T?

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Post Merge: June 17, 2010, 03:54:08 PM

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"In some cases, prevention of atrial enlargement can be accomplished by treating the underlying cause, such as blood volume or pressure. In the case of excess blood volume, blood thinners are prescribed which can stop the atrial enlargement while in the case of high blood pressure/hypertension weight loss, exercise, and blood pressure medication can help."

Blood volume...I know T increases blood volume...so could this be what's causing my problems?

I myself suffer from an ectopic heart beat I even felt it today while I was on the bus home not had it for a while, a few years ago before I knew what it was it was really bad and I saw my Dr about it and was sent to the hospital to have an ECG of course it decided not to play up while I was having that done.  But when I went back to the dr's she the results came back fine and that it sounded like I have an ectopic heart beat and was told to cut out caffine which if you look is in a LOT of things, its never been as bad as it was when it first started but I do find sometimes it comes back and I have to cut right back on food and drink with it in.
I've wondered what would happen if I started on T if it could maybe make it worse or not or bring something else on but I will be having a word with my dr about it when the time comes.
Just try to cut things out with caffine in, it might not go compleatly but it has made things better for me.

Quote from: zombiesarepeaceful on June 17, 2010, 03:41:38 PM

Could this be caused by T?

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Post Merge: June 17, 2010, 03:54:08 PM

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"In some cases, prevention of atrial enlargement can be accomplished by treating the underlying cause, such as blood volume or pressure. In the case of excess blood volume, blood thinners are prescribed which can stop the atrial enlargement while in the case of high blood pressure/hypertension weight loss, exercise, and blood pressure medication can help."

Blood volume...I know T increases blood volume...so could this be what's causing my problems?

If you've only been on it for a month though, it's most likely not going to cause atrial enlargement in that short a time; that develops over a long time, perhaps years.

Would they be able to prescribe a beta-blocker to lower your heart rate?

The enlarged atria might be caused by the sinus tach; the heart is just a muscle so by beating so fast for all those years, it likely has increased in size.

I don't think the irregular heart should be any real concern as long as you're not experiencing any symptoms (like pain or dizziness or things like that). As long as they didn't find any other dysrrhymia beyond the sinus tachycardia, it shouldn't be anything of significant concern.

The adderall can possibly cause heart disease (though mainly high blood pressure), but since you're using it under a doctor's  guidance, it should be alright—especially since it's mainly the abuse of the amphetamines that causes this.

I think you should be alright though, especially since you're young. I know I've had a fast heart beat for most my life—not sure if it's been over 100 all the time, but it's definitely been in the 90's. Once I started exercising regularly, it has decreased quite a bit; I think now its in the 70's. But I drink like tons of coffee still—there's no way I'd be able to give that up 'cause then I'd be so tired all the time (not to mention the caffeine headaches; which, I know will go away with time, but still).

Another thing too is that I when I was on my rotation at a local emergency hospital room, I'd have to look at lots of patient's EKG's and like so many of them would have "atrial enlargement". I don't know if that matters, but it could just be common for it to develop, I don't know. Anyway, the more serious problem though is if you have ventricular enlargement—specifically left ventricular enlargement. That's when you can start having some serious heart problems like congestive heart failure, heart attack, things like that.

I would just keep up with regular doctor visits, perhaps check with them about that beta-blocker, see if that could be alright for you to take. It's pretty cheap and normally doesn't have too many negative side effects. Though I'd worry about it making me too tired. But it still might be worth an inquiry and perhaps you can try it out for a few weeks. Okay, I hope you start feeling better or at least not so worried! :)

Tachycardia is not normal as you put it but it is common. It supposedly happens commonly in teens and passes on its own. It causes you to get light headed at times and even pass out. Drinking plenty of water helps to alleviate the problem.

There are various types of tachycardia. Some are potentially fatal. If yours was, I think your doc would have told you so and started meds.

Thanks guys. I was freaking out yesterday. I talked to a close friend of mine who started t 3 months ago and he said he had heart palpitations. The fact that I'm stressed plus going through a second puberty could be all the problem is. I'll keep you guys posted when I see my doc. My friend's fiance, who knows me all too well, said that it could be me just freaking myself out. Which is a giant possibility. So yeah. I don't really trust docs, but if anything were seriously wrong with me they would've kept me in the hospital.

I've been on beta blockers before. They helped me alot. So maybe that's all I need. We'll see.