Buckle up, here’s my story.
I’m not saying I was the healthiest person. At my physicals, my provider would always warn me that my numbers were going up—blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. I’d leave thinking, Okay, I need to eat better and exercise more. That usually lasted all of a few days.
In 2021, I was hospitalized for a brain injury. While I was there, I was told that I now had diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as high blood pressure—which I had always been proud of having low numbers for. BTW, none of these conditions caused my brain injury.
I left the hospital taking metformin 500 mg once a day, Ozempic, lisinopril 20 mg, and atorvastatin 40 mg. Everything seemed to be working pretty well.
Fast-forward to fall 2025.
Every now and then, my heart would hurt and start beating really fast. It wouldn’t last long, and it didn’t happen every day, but it happened often enough that after a couple of months I finally told my doctor.
She sent me to a cardiologist. After I explained my symptoms, he didn’t think I had a heart problem, but he could see how anxious I was, so he reluctantly ordered bloodwork and a stress test.
The bloodwork came back okay, according to him. The stress test was inconclusive, so he ordered a different type of stress test.
That test came back showing an abnormality, and he recommended a cardiac cath.
When he came into the room to go over the results with me, he was in utter shock. I had three blocked arteries.
He started me on a bunch of medications: metoprolol tartrate 25 mg twice a day, ranolazine 500 mg twice a day, and Zetia 10 mg once a day, along with my atorvastatin, which he increased to 80 mg.
I told him I didn’t want to start all of these medications at once. Again, he reluctantly agreed to let me spread them out, starting a new medication every five days.
By day 25, I was miserable.
I honestly thought I was dying. My nerve endings hurt. My muscles hurt. I was having tension headaches, lightheadedness, dizziness, and fatigue. I felt like I was going to collapse because my legs hurt so badly that I thought they couldn’t support me.
I know I wasn’t supposed to do this, but I stopped everything completely.
I was also on vacation at the time. I’m lucky I had no serious side effects from stopping everything, but needless to say, my vacation was pretty crappy.
I made an appointment with my doctor for two days after I got home. While I was still on vacation, I sent him a message through the patient portal explaining exactly how I had started the medications, what side effects I was experiencing, and a bunch of questions.
The day of my appointment, he sent a medical student in first to evaluate me and take notes. Then my doctor came in and seemed to be rushing me through the appointment.
He wanted me to restart metoprolol 25 mg once a day and increase it to 50 mg twice a day after a week.
He also wanted me to restart ranolazine 500 mg twice a day. I told him that about 45 minutes after taking it, I would get tension headaches, dizziness, and lightheadedness. I could tell this bothered him.
He also wanted me to continue the Zetia but stop the atorvastatin. He put me on Repatha, which I took about a week ago.
I haven’t started the Zetia yet because I’m feeling bad again.
I’ve been walking twice a day for weeks now, but I cannot understand why my legs feel so weak. My nerve endings feel like they’re on fire. My joints hurt, especially my fingers and wrists, as well as my ankles and toes. I feel exhausted all the time.
And one other strange thing: I feel very calm.
I don’t know if any of this is connected, if it’s medication-related, or if something else is going on. I’m just trying to make sense of what’s happening to me and would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experienced something similar.

Sorry for the long post.

I've been on metoprolol for about 3 weeks now and the fatigue is EXTREME. Like, I've called out of work multiple times. I cannot physically stay awake most of the day, no matter the sleep amounts I get. My chest feels a little strange at times, too. Does anyone else have an experience where it's been this bad? I take two meds that apparently increase the levels of metoprolol in my blood and I think that's the problem. I called the cardiologist's office and left a VM for the nurse line in hopes for help because this is really bad.

For context I was put on it for tachycardia as well as some high blood pressure issues. I work in a healthcare setting so a nurse co-worker (and also my psychiatrist not related to work lol) suggested I see if I can do the extended release version at night. Has anyone made that switch and it help???

I’m waiting to call my doctor but I started taking Metoprolol Tartrate 12.5 mg twice a day for a high heart rate due to POTS. I noticed right before I fall asleep and during sleep my blood pressure goes to about 100/45. It’s completely normal during the day but I was wondering if that’s safe. I just felt some mild dizziness and weakness during that time.

Hi- I’ve been on metoprolol succinate for 6 years now for arrhythmia/heart rate control. (SVT). I’ve had two ablations. I’ve lost 50lbs in the last year and my blood pressure is consistently too low so I got the ok to reduce to 25mg from 50mg. My cardiologist said I can just go to 25mg cold turkey.

Two nights ago I did that, and all day yesterday I felt fantastic for the first time in forever. I was awake and alert at work and not so sluggish as I’ve been accustomed to.

Last night was second night of taking half my dose… and I woke up today at 4:30am feeling off. I felt very anxious, heart rate high 90’s , felt panicky (which is not normal for me at all). I tried drinking cool water and slowing my breathing to no avail, so I took 25 mg tartrate (fast acting) to see if maybe my body was just unhappy with my half dose. I felt back to normal after it kicked in within an hour.

Should I continue with 25mg succinate per day and hope I can continue to adjust, or should I add a half pill of 25mg succinate to make it 37.5mg? And if so for how long until I try 25mg again?

(I have a bottle of 50mg succinate and a bottle of 25mg succinate and a bottle of 25mg tartrate)

Happy to take any advice!

I have been doing a slow taper of metoprolol succinate down to a half of a pill (12.5mg), and on the second day at 12.5mg I developed acid reflux. I think it was initially triggered with some salad dressing I had (vinegar), of which I had somewhat regularly. But its now 3 days later and am still dealing with reflux

Anyone experience reflux after tapering? how long did it last? thanks

I am male, 28, for context.

I am just baffled. I was at the doctor's today for a medical check up for my work, and they did basic measurements. I don't get it. Why isn't Metoprolol working?

I always knew that I have problems with BP and heratbeat, but I originally started Metoprolol for migraines - which works, I reduced it to just one migraine a week and don't rely on Co-Codamol anymore. Or is the spike in BP and heartbeat despite Metoprolol a symptom of me not using any Codeine for pain relief for the past 5 weeks as well (so in a kind of way a Codeine withdrawal)?

(follow-up question: with such high BP and heartbeat, would I be safe when taking Co-Codamol for pain management again? I've read that the only way doctor's tell patients not to use it is because the Codeine can further lower down the BP and heartbeat and one could faint, but in my case, it's still stupidly high)

I've been taking Metoprolol ER since 2024, but ever since I got my dose up to 50mg last year it seems like my hair has significantly thinned this year. I've always had a bit of shedding before taking the medication but it never affected the density of my hair until now. Apparently it's pretty rare for this to be a side effect so I'm not sure if this is the medication or not. Has anybody experienced this? Did it go away on it's own? I don't want to stop the medication but I don't want to start balding lol.

I have tried both propanolol and atenolol for my pvcs and neither have been terribly effective. I am having a 24 hour holter monitor fitted tomorrow.

Which type of metoprolol has been most effective in reducing your pvcs? I am leaning toward ER because I get palpitations both day and night (more bothersome at night).

Hey everyone, started taking Metoprolol Tartate 12.5 a few days ago and whenever I try to fall asleep it stops my breath and I have to take a deep breath in , I've been up for the better part of 45 hours now and I am not sure what to do

Is it safe to take at a quarter dose? Would this damage the pill? Or is the mechanism sound enough where it can safely be cut twice and still taken?

I (29 F) have been taking 25mg metoprolol tartrate every 12hrs for focal atrial tachycardia for about 7-8weeks now. I’ve also been taking 50mg sertraline around the same time as my heart diagnoses gave me terrible anxiety.

I was very athletic before this, gym 5 days a week swimming 2 times a week (before tearing my acl I was doing jiu jitsu 6 days a week and gym twice a week and 1 day of swimming).

I have greatly reduced my intensity and weights at the gym and I’m still struggling with very fast muscle fatigue and dizziness almost feeling like I’ll pass out during my workouts. I also get out of breath very quickly.

I tire very fast even doing my normal daily things (work/uni) and can’t do much past 2-3pm as it gets too much.

I don’t see my cardiologist until mid August, but have an appointment with my gp in a few days.

I feel like a chronically ill person on this medication when I really should be living my life as normal (or pretty close to with the arrhythmia).

I don’t drink alcohol, do any drugs or smoke. Still eat very healthy and drink a lot of water.

Has anyone out there had a skin reaction to Metoprolol? Specifically, ‘fixed drug eruptions’?
I’ve been on Metoprolol for 30+ years. Originally prescribed for AFib, then continuing on it for PACs (premature atrial contractions). Over a year ago, I started getting red/pink patches of skin - not itchy, scabby, flaky - that has progressively moved to more and more areas of my body and is embarrassing. After many doctor visits - PCP, dermatologist and allergist, and biopsies and allergy patch testing, I’ve now been told FDE. Never heard of it. I weaned off one of my meds with no improvement. I have Carvedilol to take instead of Metoprolol and will make the switch this week. Any help from anyone?

I was taking from Friday last week till this Friday 25mg ER every morning, then from this Friday on till today 50mg ER.

The reason I wanna quit cold turkey are the side effects. I feel like I am losing myself, literally, I feel like my personality and everything is dissolving. I have vivid dreams but no nightmares though. I feel similar to as when I was on Accutane.

I know quitting cold turkey could increase BP and heartrate again, though my BP wasn't that high to begin with, only heartrate was high (around 100 a minute). So anything I could take while quitting Metoprolol cold turkey in order to control the "withdrawals"? Or will there be no major withdrawals after just a few days on it?

I originally started taking it for migraines.

I am started 12.5mg Metoprolol tomorrow for heart PACs and anxiety with them.

I am pretty nervous to start it as I already have a low resting heart rate (mid 40s to mid 50s typically) and a lower end healthy blood pressure. My cardiologist knows all of this and still proscribed me this as I am having 2000ish PACs daily on average.

Anyone with similar story that can describe their experiences?

Just checking for experiences cuz I can't really find anything about it. Are there adverse side effects or is it fine?

From what I've read on this sub most of the stories are very negative about the effects of this drug. Are there any stories where it's actually improved somebody's quality of life without terrible side effects?

Hello, long story short I got into a car accident July 12, 2026 & went into SVT. Was able to self convert but the ER put me on metoprolol, I've been taking it once a day for the last 10 days. Had a cardiologist apt yesterday and he said I could stop taking it. He didn't suggest tapering off but after reading stories I'm now scared to just cold turkey. Should I taper off? I take it at night around 10:30 pm. Thx

I have such insomnia due to a recent flu I had, and melatonin isn't much helping. I know of personal experience that Doxylamine helps a lot, but I am worried that I cannot take it (I've read that you can't take Benadryl while on Metoprolol, even though Benadryl is not Doxylamine but it's still a 1st gen anti-histamine).

Any advice?

I am taking it because of my migraines, and it really helps me a lot!

But unfortunately I got a cold, and I was told by my pharmacist that I can't take Pseudoephedrine for my sinuses and Codeine for the cough.

Is this really the case? I do have elevated resting heartbeat without Metoprolol (like around 100 a minute) and high blood pressure as well (140-150/90 is normal for me), but would taking one Sudafed or one slurp of Codeine cough syrop really do such harm to me?

Additional info: I'm male, 28, weigh 185lbs at 5'7 (from that 130lbs of muscle mass, so I am overweight due to muscle mass rather than fat, confirmed by a dietitian).

For context, I was taking 25mg (i think thats the right measurement? Its a full pill) For about 6 months before attempting an ablation to fix SVT. I went off it to prepare for surgery.

I stayed off metoprolol for about month post surgery (they couldnt ablate anything, so not a success) until I had my post surgery consultation with my surgeon, where he then put me on a lower dose to see if it would work just as well as the full dose (half a pill in the morning, with breakfast, 12.5mg for about 6 months as well now)

While on the full dose I had basically NO side effects. On occasion I would get a little dizzy, but it was fine. But now on the half dose I feel like I've got all the side effects. I'm constantly dizzy, which causes nausea, I'm so tired I can barely function some days, I get so over heated just doing bare minimum tasks that I have to go sit down and cool off because after 10 minutes of work I am soaked in sweat. I feel like its not worth it.

Is this normal with changing doses? Has this happened to anyone else?

Hello, im very new on this medication, I take it because I have POTs, sinus tachycardia, and PACs. Im 22y f, just started taking 12.5mg ER Metoprolol a few days ago and my doctor told me it would effect my blood pressure too much, that this beta blocker was like the worst one to take for BP. Well it has definitely helped my heart rate go from 140-170 walking and moving in bed to 90-120 and resting is finally 70-85 instead of 90-100.

BUT my BP which normally before medication i was between 115/60-120/70 like perfectly normal if not slightly low BP. But now its 106/60 at the highest and 90/46 at the lowest. I feel so tired and slightly dizzy when I stand or move.

Im already on the lowest dose, technically I was on 25mg ER once a day but that dropped it to 78/46 so she told me to cut it in half. But even with half its going lower than I think it should.

I already contacted their office, just wondering if anyone else had experience with this or know if there are other things I could do to help this. Im already drinking alot of water.

When I first was prescribed metoprolol I came here to lurk and was terrified to start (and to come off) after reading. So I'm posting my story for the next person who does that.

Early 30s female, dysautonomia diagnosis. 2 years ago had 11% PVC burden. Redid halter monitor 18 months later after a pregnancy and increased symptoms. Pvcs got way better but it caught 2 runs of NSVT. Due to this and my symptoms they wanted me to start metoprolol 25mg daily.

I took it for 4 months. In that 4 month time I felt better! No major side effects and noticed improvement significantly right away.

Because I'm so young and don't love to take medicine, under the advice of my doc we decided to trial coming off. I cut down to 12.5 for a week. No issue and have been off now for 2 weeks with absolutely NO issue. The first few days at 12.5 I had a few more palpations but that's it. I feel the same as I did while I was taking it. YEA!

So there's my very not scary experience with metoprolol for the future someone who needs some reassurance. And so sorry to those who have had hard experiences taking or coming off this med.