Hiya - I had these symptoms too and my heart goes out to you they are horrible. The anxiety and panic attacks were awful along with lots of episodes of very fast heartbeats. I am now back on my original HRT which was unavailable for a long time and 8 weeks in the symptoms have all but gone. My oestrogen blood level was off the scale low at 69 so the Meno consultant said she was not at all surprised at the symptoms I was getting. I am slowly increasing the dose under her advice but seemed to have reached a good place at the moment. Am having another blood test in 3 months to check oestrogen levels. I hope this helps to know this and it does sound as though your oestrogen levels may well be too low as well. Low oestrogen affects cortisol levels and also can kick off fast heartbeats along with the joy of hot flushes etc. I hope so much you get to feel better soon. x
Hi Pippa52,
I was just wanting to ask a few questions about cortisol rushes.
I am 57 post meno and I have been on HRT since 25th August, patch and a half of estraderm and 100mg utrogestan PV.
I am also on amitrypline which I am attempting to wean off.
I often get cortisol rushes associated with trying to get to sleep as my sleep (although getting better very slowly) is still not where it used to be. Had very bad insomnia.
At night sometimes, I get very fast sort of pounding heartbeat and I sort of get very hot, (not hot flushes) I presume this is cortisol surges. I just wondered, my oestradiol level at the end of June was <19 so very low.
I know you can get cortisol rushes first thing in the morning but didn't know you could get them at night.
Did yours subside when you got your estrogen levels sorted? Thanks so much