Short of breath

[Min75]

I don't know what's wrong with me. I am in my late forties. I feel short of breath often, sometimes daily. This started a couple of years ago, but has got much more frequent in the last couple of months. I am perimenopausal. I also have endometriosis and adenomyosis. I take the progesterone only pill to help my endometriosis.
Apart from this my iron level is 20, which is normal, but the lower end of normal, my B12 is also the lower end of normal at 220 (lower limit is 197). I had cardiology tests like holter monitor, Echocardiogram and stress Echocardiogram a couple of years ago when this shortness of breath started and everything came back normal, so I was discharged from Cardiology.
I do suffer from anxiety at times, but I am not sure if the shortness of breath is linked to that or something else as I have this symptom even when I am not particularly anxious about anything. I feel like I can't get enough air and keep having to yawn multiple times in order to breathe properly. It feels awful and makes me feel lightheaded.
I have also become sensitive to certain food. I can no longer tolerate spicy foods, raw onions or acidic foods. I used to be able to tolerate these, but cannot anymore as it would add to the shortness of breath, plus those foods can give me heartburn.
I am so worried about all of this. My other bloods came back normal, my chest x-ray was normal, sitting to standing blood pressure was also normal and oxygen saturation was also 99-100 per cent. What could this be? Without a definite diagnosis, I can't get the right treatment and I am stuck with his uncomfortable breathing pattern.If anyone has been through this or has some knowledge about this, please help. Many thanks in advance.

@Min75 I'm sorry to hear about your bereavement. I could have written your post and still have the same issue. Breathlessness came on suddenly a year ago, I also experienced some dizziness at the time. Blood showed very low ferritin which increased to a good level after supplement. Dizziness gone but the breathlessness had stayed. Like you, it's not all the time, but often daily. For example, yesterday I felt absolutely fine but today I feel more breathless. I'm also a bit anxious generally but don't notice the correlation with me feeling anxious and those symptoms.
Had ECG, echo, bloods, all fine. B12 320 so that's normal. I'd describe my breathlessness more like air hunger. Not sure what to do. Also perimenopausal at 43. Someone mentioned PoTs to me so that's being looked at

I had exactly the same my GP recognised it was air hunger- it’s a known peri symptom. Mine went completely with Estrogen based HRT. I know you are probably not going to take Estrogen due to the Endo but I thought it might ease your worry abit.

I had this a few years ago when I was about 47 and it was horrific. I had months of feeling like I couldn’t take a deep, deep breath and yawning to get breath in me. On top of that I found myself either swallowing a lot more and having to chew food a lot more and sometimes swallow with some water as I felt like my throat was closed up and I was going to choke. It was horrible. In the end I started taking Citalopram as HRT did nothing to ease the symptoms. I was convinced there was something physically wrong with me as how could anxiety possibly make me feel like that?! It was peri anxiety. It went quite quickly once I was on ADs and I learnt to lean into it rather than fight it. A few years on now I still take the ADs and rarely feel like this anymore. I do notice it happens a little if I’m over tired/stressed but now that I know it’s in my head so to speak I can manage it way better.

I will add that mine started when I wasn’t feeling particularly anxious. In fact it came on after a stressful period in my life. The doctor said that wasn’t necessarily unusual insofar as I’d just kept going thro the stressful times and now my body was processing it afterwards. Until then I’d been firmly in the ‘nothing a bit of fresh air and exercise’ can’t fix school of thought for ‘anxiety’. This experience humbled me a bit!

I really needed to read this today! Same boat, have held off AD's for the past 10 yrs but the fresh air and exercise don't cut it anymore.

I also have horrible hormonal heart palpitations (week before period and on period, and sometimes around ovulation). Dit the AD's do anything for this? I will ask gp about HRT but unfortunately the guidelines in my country is 5 yrs on them max, and at 41 I probably have a while to go yet with peri symptoms worsening over time. So I'm thinking AD's first...

@OyWithThePoodlesAlready84 I’m glad to have said something helpful. I can remember when I was feeling at my most awful scouring the likes of Mumsnet for reassuring stories of coming through the other side because I genuinely couldn’t see it happening.
I didn’t really have anything else going on other than the crippling breath things. It was weird because I saw two different doctors over a number of months and had very contradictory things said to me. The first Doctor put me on HRT and was very dismissive of ADs. He didn’t think they were the first port of of call, he was very dismissive of people seeing them as a quick fix and things like talking therapy should be tried first, et cetera. When I went back to see a second Dr she said quite the opposite that for anxiety around menopausal age she would always go with AD’s first. I came off HRT after a few weeks on the ADs and haven’t looked back since. I can only speak for me but total game changer.

If anyone here is unable to take a full breath & really fill their lungs...I had that all my life, until I was diagnosed mid 40's with a hole in my heart. I also had shortness of breath when climbing stairs etc. All resolved when I had the hole closed.
Get your heart checked.

@BlackSwan would this show on an ECG and echo? I've had these and nothing was picked up.

Most of the time, I'm totally fine going up stairs/hills and I did a 5 mile walk the other day which was hilly, I didn't have any issues or feel breathless at all. It's just that on somedays I feel like i can't get a satisfying breath, whether at rest or exercise. I can go days feeling totally fine and then days wh
en I feel the air/hunger, hence making me wonder if it's hormone related...

Mine was picked up on an echo yes.

You said your iron is 20 - is that ferritin? If so that's actually low & I would look into an iron infusion.

Hi op
I've had this for years on and off, 16yrs ago I noticed it.

Essentially it's poor breathing as a result of anxiety.

I can get myself out of it by doing deliberate breathing into my diaphragm rather than into my chest.

Each time you want to take a an over deep breath, breathe as hard as you can into your diaphragm.

Mine got so bad once my lips and hands went numb. Also you can release it's hold on you by breathing in for 5 and out for 7. Stops you taking in too much carbon dioxide.

I'm also asthmatic and was told at 48 that I have silent reflux.

I've learnt how to ignore the breathing thing. And palpitations etc. It took a concerted effort over many years.

For me the true test is that it doesn't affect my sleep. I put my head on the pillow and sleep deeply for 7hrs!