Irregular heartbeat during exercise - is this a peri symptom?

Hi all,

Yesterday I noticed a new symptom, that repeated today: when doing cardio, my chest felt a bit weird (not painful, just feeling faintly funny) and when I checked my pulse, it kept changing - slowing down a bit for 4-5 beats, speeding up a bit for 4-5 beats, slowing down again, etc. I normally do cardio a couple of times a week and also walk regularly to try and stay relatively fit (although I am overweight).

Has anyone else had this? Is it another peri symptom - I know peri can cause palpitations, but I don't think this is palpitations, as I can't feel my heart race or skip? Or is it something unrelated?

I started having peri symptoms in the spring and early summer:

• light hot flushes, so you feel slightly warm but not furnace hot, initially was once or twice a month, but now are 2-3x a day
• lightheaded for a month or two in the spring, but that's now gone
• hair started falling out around the hairline and my part, leaving me with a semi-bald patch about 3cm wide.
• lots of general body aches, skin breaking out and rashes, etc., but I'm also very stressed (stupid Covid and I'm also unemployed), so that could also be causing a lot of these things.

The hair loss is what caused me to go to the GP. A bunch of blood tests ruled out thyroid or pituitary problems, iron or zinc deficiencies (just low in Vit D), but FSH showed menopausal levels, although I'm still having periods (although rarely, as I have a coil and only get a period about once a year). Currently waiting for my appointment with the dermatologist, but the GP thinks is most likely hormones (from peri as well as stress).

I'm 46 years old. I had suspected early peri 5 years ago (I had the lightheadedness for months, as well as about 6 weeks of palpitations - doc checked me out and found everything normal except my FSH was all over the place - some months normal and some months menopausal) but then the symptoms all went away, and I assumed it was a false start. I didn't have my FSH checked during the intervening years, but had no peri symptoms so I assume everything went back to normal.

Thanks for any insight you can share - hope you all feel better soon!

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