High resting heart rate

[DottieDam]

I don't know if this is just a rant or if anyone has an advice?!

I'm 14 wks and since Friday my resting HR has been above 100bpm. I can be sitting down reading and it will be 115bpm. I've also been ridiculously tired, I've had a nap-filled pregnancy so far but this is another level - for example, Sunday I didn't get out of bed I just was too tired.

Called midwife yesterday and they brought me in for tests. Midwife said it's normal to have HR of 90bpm in pregnancy (although what I read suggested 90bpm was normal around 31 wks!) and I felt she was pretty dismissive (which I accept I could be over reacting!).

They called last night to say bloods came back fine so there is nothing wrong with me (infection markers, liver and kidney. I'm on iron tablets for low iron stores but my stores had actually doubled in 4 weeks). Thing is, my HR is still high, I still feel awful and I have no idea why so telling me 'there's nothing wrong with me' wasn't very reassuring when there is no explanation!

I'm currently off work but given how tired I am and how much I am sleeping I don't know how I'm gonna go back next week! But seems they think this is just my pregnancy!

It doesn't help that they also keep talking about my miscarriages (normally lost about 6-7 weeks). Doctor said I didn't need any extra support due to this. But midwife reminding me that I could still miscarry while talking to me about HR just felt again like she had no faith my pregnancy would last (even though she said HR wasn't a miscarriage risk!)

Sorry to hear your midwife hasn't given the reassurance here

Slightly random but have your thyroid levels been checked? Sure they've done these but that can make your heart rate rise
That happened to be before pregnancy and it was going as high as 150-170 but also around the 100 rate at times

Only after 3 trips to a+e did they tell me it was my thyroid

Probably isn't but just a thought
X

I agree with @strawberrysummer19. You need to get your thyroid checked ASAP.

IF your thyroid is overactive it would explain why your HR is high and may have contributed to your MCs.

Speak to your GP, not midwife, and ask them to check your thyroid function including T3 and T4.

Best of luck for your pregnancy and I'm sorry for what you've been through

I had a high resting heart rate in all of my pregnancies. All tests came back fine thyroid, ecg etc but it's definitely worth asking if these haven't been tested already.

It's gone back down now but still on the higher end of normal.

I second PP, ask GP to check your thyroid. High heart rate and tiredness are too main symptoms of overactive thyroid - other things to watch for are feeling jittery/nervous, trouble sleeping, weight loss (or not gaining the weight you would expect in pregnancy). I hope you feel better soon

Have you been through any significant stressors or trauma recently?

Otherwise I agree with pp that this warrants further investigation. High heart rate can be a sign of something amiss and actually cause problems in its own right too, so if it's been going on for a while it needs to be checked. Call your GP and explain what you have here xx

When I was 33 weeks my HR even when nervous and hooked up to machines was 85!

Thank you so much all!

Having something concrete to ask GP about it really helpful!

The midwife did comment about it being strange thyroid wasn't checked yesterday so I do know it wasn't but not why.

@DottieDam that's what's so good about here sometimes

I was diagnosed with an over active thyroid last may so here if you have any questions - hopefully it won't be that and won't be anything serious but like others have said call GP and be persistent if you have to be xx

I haven’t got any advice but just to let you know I experienced the same thing. Weeks 14-16 my resting heart rate was at least 100, a good 110+ most of the time to the point I could hear it pulsing in my ear. It got me really worried as I’m at risk of preeclampsia but all my bloods etc including blood pressure were always fine. I’m now 33 weeks and it’s calmed down a lot (80-90 bmp) and looking back that was the most stressful time of my pregnancy as I was still suffering with morning sickness, delayed scans and other work stuff so that with all the hormone changes is what I think did it.
I agree you should definitely get further checks just to be sure but at the same time try not to worry (easier said than done though I know!)

I had this, they did all my bloods which came back normal. Midwife then advised speaking to my GP and said they would likely want to do an ECG to find the cause. I actually put that off for a while and then my heart rate returned to normal (around 90bpm) after weeks of it being over 100 at rest. But I would suggest speaking to you GP, midwife also mentioned thyroid which GP could look into (they didn’t test that for me either).

an infection or vaccine side effects can also increase the testing heart rate.

have you had your booster recently?

I agree, see your gp.

What's your normal pre-pregnancy RHR? Mine is up about 10-15bpm at the highest but even at its lowest it's still 4-5bpm higher than pre-pregnancy. 100+ sounds high though.

I’m 20 weeks and since early pregnancy mine is 95-100. If I walk up the stairs it goes to 140 … read it can just be part of pregnancy so I haven’t discussed with the midwife yet x