Heart Palpitations

Symptoms · Reviewed August 2026

Definition

Heart palpitations are the felt awareness of your own heartbeat. People describe them as a beat that feels fast, slow, regular, or irregular, or as a flutter, a pound, or a skipped beat.[1] The term names the sensation itself, not any single heart rhythm, so it's recorded as a symptom rather than a measurement.

Educational content, not medical advice. For personal or fertility concerns, please consult your doctor.

What Heart Palpitations Describe

A palpitation is a sensory experience. Clinical references describe it as a skipped beat, a rapid fluttering in the chest, a pounding in the chest or neck, or a flip-flopping feeling.[2] That makes it different from heart metrics a device measures. Resting heart rate and heart rate variability are numbers a sensor records whether or not you notice anything. A palpitation only exists when you feel it.

How It's Recorded

There's no device or lab test for the sensation itself. You log it: when it happened and, if you want, notes on how it felt. Palpitations are common enough to record that they account for 16% of visits to generalist physicians.[1]

Why People Track Heart Palpitations

People log palpitations to see when the sensation shows up: which days of the cycle, which weeks, alongside which other symptoms. Menopause research is one place the symptom appears at population level. A 2022 scoping review of 84 studies reports that palpitations during peri- and post-menopause are common, and set out to map which variables travel with them.[3]

For how measured heart data itself shifts across the cycle, see HRV and Resting Heart Rate Across Your Cycle.

How Go Go Gaia Tracks Heart Palpitations

Go Go Gaia logs heart palpitations with a 1-tap symptom entry. Because the app also pulls your measured heart data from Apple Health, each palpitation log lands on the same timeline as your resting heart rate and HRV, plus your cycle phase. The felt sensation and the recorded numbers sit side by side instead of in separate apps.

Log the feeling next to the numbers

Chart palpitation logs against your heart data and cycle phase in Go Go Gaia.

Download on the App Store

Free to log. No account needed to start.

What the Research Shows

The 2022 scoping review found that worse vasomotor symptoms, worse sleep, worse quality of life, lower physical activity, and race/ethnicity were likely correlates of palpitations during the menopause transition. Age, BMI, and several other variables looked unlikely, and the authors conclude more research is needed.[3]

A separate systematic review, examining how menopausal symptom research treats palpitations as an outcome, defines the symptom as feelings of missed or exaggerated heartbeats reported by perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Reviewing 37 studies, the authors call for more randomized controlled trials that examine palpitations specifically, rather than as a secondary measure.[4]

Related Terms

Resting Heart Rate

The measured beats-per-minute number a device records, separate from what you feel.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

The beat-to-beat variation in heart timing that wearables track overnight.

Cold Intolerance

Another logged sensation people chart against measured data over time.

Restless Legs

An urge-to-move symptom with a documented evening and night pattern.

Frequently Asked Questions

Educational information based on published sources. Not medical advice. For personal concerns, please consult your doctor.

What are heart palpitations?

Heart palpitations are the felt awareness of your own heartbeat. People describe the beat as fast, slow, regular, or irregular, or as a flutter, a pound, or a skipped beat.[1] The term describes the sensation, not any single heart rhythm.

Are heart palpitations a heart measurement?

No. A palpitation entry records what you felt and when you felt it. Measured heart data like resting heart rate and heart rate variability come from a device such as a watch or ring. They're separate kinds of data, which is why apps chart them side by side.

Do researchers study palpitations during perimenopause?

Yes. A 2022 scoping review of 84 studies reports that palpitations during peri- and post-menopause are common, and found that worse vasomotor symptoms, worse sleep, worse quality of life, and lower physical activity were likely correlates. The authors note more research is needed.[3]

References

  1. Wexler RK, Pleister A, Raman SV. Palpitations: Evaluation in the Primary Care Setting. American Family Physician. 2017;96(12):784-789. aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2017/1215/p784
  2. Goyal A, Robinson KJ, Katta S, Sanchack KE. Palpitation. StatPearls [Internet]. NCBI Bookshelf. NBK436016
  3. Carpenter JS, Sheng Y, Pike C, Elomba CD, Alwine JS, Chen CX, Tisdale JE. Correlates of palpitations during menopause: A scoping review. Women's Health (London). 2022;18. PMID 35833667
  4. Sheng Y, Carpenter JS, Elomba CD, Alwine JS, Yue M, Chen CX, Tisdale JE. Effect of menopausal symptom treatment options on palpitations: a systematic review. Climacteric. 2022;25(2):128-140. PMID 34346265

Sourced from peer-reviewed research and, for basic mechanism claims, established references like NIH and StatPearls. Every citation above is checked to confirm it resolves to a real source and supports the sentence it's attached to. Last reviewed August 2026. See our full methodology on the Encyclopedia hub.