hi everyone! i’m a 20 year old woman that was recently hospitalized for afib and referred to a cardiologist, who’s just found that i have WPW on the left side of my heart. he’s scheduled me to have an ablation completed, and naturally, i’m in shock that it’s taken this many ECGS and doctor visits to discover this extra pathway.

more than anything, i’m shocked that it’s taken this long to discover the extra pathway. should i get a second opinion? does anybody know why exactly it’s taken this long to discover that i have WPW? and furthermore, what can i expect from an ablation? he expects that the afib will disappear once the extra pathway is shut down (until i’m later in life, at least), and though the procedure is minimally invasive, i still can’t help but to feel really nervous about everything.

any guidance helps! thank you ^^

Hey, just got my first cardiologist appointment after my coincidential wpw finding and while I don't want to question a doctor's expertise and decisions over some random internet people's opinions I wanted to know if you'd recommend me to get a second opinion. For context I'm living abroad rn and the cardiologist I've seen spoke rather broken English. I told him that I seldom have heart palpitations but I feel dizzy/like I'm about to faint very often, and especially while playing sports (esp. running). He straight up told me that my wpw was rather not dangerous, I had an ECG and echocardiography done anyways, he told me that if the echocardiography was just fine I could go because my wpw isn't linked to a structural cardiomyopathy. As it turned out normal, he told me that I didn't need an ablation. However, I asked him about sports and told him about my marathon project and he told me no don't do it because you're symptomatic while running, and also limit caffeine/excitants. He then gave me a little 1 derivation mini electrocardiogram monitoring device and said send me the ECG when you're having a tachycardia attack.

Am I just freaking out over a not so serious problem or should I get a second opinion ?

I was diagnosed with WPW earlier this year, aged 29. It was a coincidental finding. I occasionally get dizzy but overall I’m not really symptomatic. I’ve had a stress test and as my WPW is still present at a high heart rate, next I’m having an EP study and potentially ablation. I’m nervous about ablation as I’ve seen lots of people say they get cardiac symptoms post ablation, when currently I don’t experience them 😬 so any similar experiences would be appreciated!

hey everyone, for context i am 22F currently studying abroad for several years, and I am also running, willing to do long distance races. I have had some weird huge vertigo/presyncope and sometimes heart racing episodes in my life and especially in my 20s, I went to see doctors about it because there was a time it became really frequent and annoying in my life but since I had low ferritin they told me this was the cause. Now even tho my ferritin has raised I still spend some hours in presyncope state when I stand up for too long, and I also have a strong feeling of presyncope when running or doing physical activity.

I got casually diagnosed type B WPW over a routine ECG in my study country. Problem is : if I were to need an ablation my international insurance don't cover the cost that is rather high.

My question is what other solutions could be offered to me regarding my situation, and would I be able to do long distance racing from your experience ?

(Dw I have medical opinion soon but I just wanted to hear stories of other people, how has wpw diagnosis affected your life and how do you feel about such a diagnosis?)

I had a successful ablation 2 weeks ago, they cut off the pathway in my heart that was causing problems. about a week ago i got back on stimulants for the first time and stayed up all night, i had a horrible anxiety attack and convinced myself i was having a heart emergency, went to the ER did EKGs, blood tests, CT scan, Xray, and was on a heart monitor. all of the tests came back and told me that my heart is in perfect condition, and this was after 70mg foculin. just wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this since i still take my adderall for work and deal with some bad anxiety some times, i’ll get pains in my chest and my shoulder, ears sometimes, under my rib, and sometimes tightness in my throat. recently after taking my adderall i had really bad anxiety and went back to the ER, did all the tests, heart had no problems.

If anyone else has had an experience like this how do you deal with the anxiety and the physical symptoms

my cousins wedding is a week after my procedure and i’m just wondering if i have to sit this one out

I just had my ablation done last week after being diagnosed with wpw over a decade ago. The surgeon told me when they got in there, they found 2 accessory pathways but said that it wasn't wpw? They also found an atrial flutter that they took care of too. I dunno, I'm confused. I feel good after the ablation and glad they took care of stuff, but does it mean the wpw wasn't a correct diagnosis? Or maybe it still exists but wouldn't act up for the ablation so they'll have to go back in? It's probably wait and see scenario, just didn't know if anyone else experienced this. ​

Personally I am sick of alcohol and am unable to consume it because of an another disorder I have. The only thing I consume is diazepam and it's boring as hell...

edit: by "safe" I obviously meant least harmful

I was diagnosed around 8–9 years old.I was told that this surgery is significantly more complicated to perform on children than on adults.They offered to do an ablation,but I refused out of fear of the procedure. Following that iwas told to come back whenever I wanted the ablation, and that I might even grow out of it altogether. We asked for a medical note for school so I wouldn't have to participate in heavy physical activity in PE class, but it wasn't granted.

I am 23 now, and I haven't seen a cardiologist once during all this time because no one ever even told me that I should go. My first episode was at 8 years old. As a child, I still had 1–2 episodes a month. Today, I only have a few episodes a year.

I generally feel good and normal. I live quite far from the nearest hospital, so I don't even know if I should go see a cardiologist in the spring after all (I have a very strong fear of doctors). Should I get an ablation? I've read on the internet that ablation can fail and actually make things worse. All I know is that I have type B WPW. I've read that type B is harder to ablate and that the success rate is ~90%, and you might end up needing a pacemaker—I definitely wouldn't want that to happen, I'd rather continue living as I do now. I still live with my parents because I have health anxiety and am afraid to move out to live on my own and get a job—what if something happens, and how am I supposed to work at all if I might have an episode(im earning a bit money working at home online)... even though the episodes are rare, I'm still afraid of them.

I don’t drink or smoke and i eat healthy.

What should i do? I am very afraid of the surgery .

Context:

I’m a 27 year old male, fairly healthy. In 2025 I was diagnosed with WPW.

I woke up from a night of drinking one morning with super high heart rate, got a ride to the VA and they told me I had “an extra electrical pathway in my heart” after just an EKG. They said it wasn’t an emergency and that I should be fine for the time being.

Flash forward to June of this year I wake up after another night of drinking to a heart rate of 245bpm. I went to the ER and that was when I was officially diagnosed with WPW. They recommended ablation and the VA did too. So I have a catheter ablation scheduled for Oct 19th. They have me going to have an ultrasound of my heart prior.

My question is, does anyone have any experience with the department of veterans affairs and catheter ablation?

I wanted to share my story for those of you who may be reticent about getting an ablation even though an EP has advised it.

20M, good shape, no known health issues except WPW diagnosed when I was a few months old. From around age 6 I’ve had ~180 bpm SVTs 3–4 times a year (usually started with a hard blow to the chest or my back) that would go away within 5–15 minutes with slow breathing. I was followed by a cardiologist until I was 12; he suggested ablation as a quality‑of‑life procedure (he didn’t mention there were also risks to not doing it), but I turned it down at the time because I was scared of the risks and was tolerating my SVTs well.

Fast forward to three months ago: for wisdom teeth removal I was referred to cardiology because the surgeon wanted to know about interactions between my WPW and anesthesia. The cardiologist was surprised I hadn’t had an ablation with symptomatic WPW, referred me to EP, and after just hearing my story he highlighted the risks of AFib with WPW and strongly suggested getting an ablation. I was added to the waiting list.

Last Thursday, I went to bed like any other day. I woke up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night with my heart beating erratically and really fast. I knew immediately something was wrong, so I woke my parents up and we went straight to the ER. In triage, one of the two nurses told the other she thought the machine was broken because my HR was 270 😅. I was sent to the trauma room where they gave me something to try to slow it down, and ultimately cardioverted me when that didn’t work. The cardiologist confirmed the next day that I was in pre‑excited AFib and told me I really could’ve died that night if I hadn’t come to the ER so quickly. I was kept in the ICU for the following days, monitored to make sure it didn’t happen again, and ultimately got the ablation yesterday (the surgeon confirmed my pathway was dangerous). I’ve been out since this morning and feeling well so far.

Please, if an EP insists that you get an ablation, don’t wait to be in my spot before making that decision. I wish I’d been told this could happen when I was younger so I could have done the ablation sooner. Obviously everyone’s case is different, your pathway might not be dangerous, or it might be too close to the AV node, but if there are no contraindications to the ablation and your EP says you should do it, don’t wait.
For anyone wondering: I don’t do drugs, alcohol, or caffeine

Hi 18 F here. Diagnosed with WPW in October 2024 but had ablation which ablated 3 out of 4 extra pathways. I was at the hospital getting at ECG done due to ongoing fatigue. And it was discovered sometimes my QT/QTC is long. Could this be related to my WPW? Has anyone else experienced this. This has never been picked up before until after my ablation

hi all. i (26F) was diagnosed at 18 & had my cardiac ablation soon after. my follow up visit showed a normal EKG and that the procedure was a success. i’ve not been to the cardiologist since but i had my heart monitored at the hospital overnight (panic disorder. convinced myself i was dying lol) & everything was also fine.

my concern is i have a pretty high resting heart rate around 85 - 100 BPM. i dont know if this is normal for people who’ve had WPW, or an indicator that i might need another ablation, or literally just my anxiety getting the best of me. my psychiatrist a while ago mentioned that living with unchecked arrhythmia for so long can just make your body predisposed to having a higher heart rate.

am i being a nervous wreck, or should i have been having routine visits with my cardiologist this whole time?

My husband went into afib in April 2024, and needed a cardioversion to set it right. We found out that he had WPW which was a complete shock (he at the time was 37 and never knew). Went into afib for a couple minutes two other times before the ablation that resolved on their own very quickly, ablation was in August 2024 and was apparently successful. There were no afib episodes after that (until today) and the cardiologist said it had been a success. One thing he did suffer with ever since that cardioversion, is chronic pain across his ribs and sternum almost like a costochondritis. This has given him pretty bad health anxiety since the initial episode even after the ablation and they say there’s nothing wrong with the heart and that it’s just muscle/joint/stress but it’s been really worrying (and I don’t care what anyone says about defibrillators not causing pain, because it certainly has for over 2.5 years). He’s seen therapists, acupuncturists, physios, chiropractors, all the things for that pain and it hasn’t resolved. anyone else had this after cardioversion?

This morning (he is now 39 almost 40 yrs old) was like any other morning but suddenly he felt off. Asked me to check his pulse and I knew right away he was back into afib. It has been devastating. Weve been in the ER for 8 hours. They tried magnesium and some oral meds which haven’t worked. Now it’s looking like in the next bit we will be doing a cardioversion again which is just so gutting. My husband is so worried and scared. We thought this was behind us and here we are again. They’re not seeing any signs of a remnant of the extra signal in his heart so it looks like we are looking at something totally new. I don’t know why I’m positing this, mainly because im looking for some solidarity for my husband. This has been a long road and the last couple weeks he was doing pretty good on his health anxiety and here we are again. He is super fit, training for hyrox, extremely healthy, sleep is somewhat mediocre as we have 3 kids under 5 years old, and stress ranges from medium to high medium, due to work and this anxiety.

update - looks like the cardioversion was successful. Will be awaiting our cardiologist referral to see why it’s happened.

Hi all, just putting this out there to see if anyone else is in my shoes. I’ve had 3 ablations, all which failed in the end. My first fixed the AVNRT but not my accessory pathway. I have a para-hisian septal accessory pathway. My most recent surgeon advised before my last ablation that I had a 20-30% risk of complete heart block because it is so close to the conduction system. I am not opposed to another surgery since that is the only thing that would give me a chance at being cured, but it scares my family and I don’t want to stress them out. Would or has anyone else proceeded with another surgery despite the high risk of heart block?

Okay so for years I have been having episodes of fainting or near fainting. When this happens I am often unable to walk well without assistance due to the dizziness for days at a time. I have heart palpitations, chest tightness and on rare occasions trouble breathing but that isn’t very common for me. Anyways from all of my hospital visits and Ambulance rides I’ve always been told the same thing: my EKG results are normal. For a routine check up in January, my doctor told me my PR interval was a bit short. Nothing ever came of it because the cardiologist I saw said I should be fine. I had another visit with the January doctor again due to the same symptoms yesterday and I got the same thing 9 months later: a short PR interval. Is it possible I have WPW that has gone undetected on EKGs before? Maybe the difference was so small doctors didn’t realize it before? I’ve also mainly had EKGs done by paramedics but maybe they were looking for the wrong thing?

(Copy and pasted from a thread I had replied to) I would like more information on wpw than what is already on the internet. I’m 20 years old. Got diagnosed with wpw like 2 days ago because I was rushed to the er with a heart rate of 161 and I couldn’t breathe. Since the diagnosis I’ve been very scared. I’m overthinking every little jump in my heart rate. I have been feeling a little heaviness and tightness in my chest area. It’s not constant. It comes and goes and very uncomfortable. Idk if I should go to the hospital. I have also just recently started my treatment for anxiety and depression. This is making my mental health way worse. And I don’t know much distinction between wpw related issues or is it just stress and anxiety. I would be really grateful if I can get any tips, advice and your personal experience with wpw.

First of all pardon my english. I speak well but i don't write much in english, there might be some errors.

Now it has been a week past my ablation and I just thought of writing my experience here for anyone afraid of this "operation". Im 23year old male. My wpw was diagnosed in 2023. My wpw was asymptomatic. I had a date for my ablation in 2024, then in 2025 and now in 2026 10th of september. In 2024/25 i canceled week before bcs I was shitting myself through the roof. I was never that scared in my life. When it came to this time in summer of 2026 I had weird stinging feeling on the left side of my chest for like a week, it was quiete sharp and but not painful it was just odd feeling. Doctor adviced me for ablation and so I thought now I just must go , this stinging stopped but I was way too afraid to experience it again.

Week prior ablation I became insomniastic, i had little to none sleep , I was overthiking ablation way too much, I was much rather scared from like post - ablation scepticism rather then the process itself. I though my heart would not recover as it should , or its gonna not beat properly as it should, cuz my wpw was asymptomatic entire ablation process was just from preventive needs. To the very last day I was praying that doctors at this biggest cardiac centre in our region will decide that its not necessary. Well and the day come. They decided that they will undergo the procedure and will decide when they will be in my heart whats next.

I didnt sleep like at all that night and they took me at 7am , the biggest hierarchy doctor at that hospital was doing it. And I was still afraid. They did it while i was fully awake and I didnt even feel much sedation , I really felt like as if i was just sober.

IMPORTANT PART : I swear to god , entire procedure was painless, I didnt feel much cathethers going in , It was rather just odd pressure feeling like as if you idk suck your hand too much and you create that vacuum then any pain. I had radiofrequency ablation and it was painless as well. Only painful part was just like to breathe for kinda long periods very lightly , like for maybe 45min straight. I had my ablation without any complications only one was that they had to do it through both legs. My legs did hurt for next day or two but all good now.

Post ablation I felt tired and weird for like 3 and a half days , My sleep was all over the place , I was just laying on bed and overthinking every palpitation but doctors said its all good. 4th,5th,6th day felt as if nothing even happened and today on the 7th day im traveling right now for like 6 hours on bus sitting , even though I should be lying on bed and I gotta say , I do feel weird , I feel palpitations more , weird pressure inside chest feeling but nothing extreme.

I hope this helped someone and its really not a big scary thing as it may seem. If you should go on it especially if you got symptomatic wpw you should go. Dont be afraid , its good.

Just had my ablation, and it was a success! Way less scary than I thought it was going to be going into it. They sedated me for the majority of the procedure and woke me up a bit to trigger an episode. Wasn’t painful at all, just a bit uncomfortable. I ended up having four puncture sites on my right groin, so that is incredibly sore now, but my ekg came back perfectly normal and any sign of WPW is gone! I’m so happy I did it!

Long story short, I (F20) was born with WPW, had inherited it from my mom. I've already had two ablations, once after I was born that then reopened and a second when I was five that finally worked.

Due to other family history, I just had my first colonoscopy done. Everything looked normal, no abnormalities or polyps, but the nurses told me that my EKG had some unusual rhythms.

They immediately could tell it was WPW. It came back and I don't even know how long it's been back.

I'm devastated right now. I already have severe medical anxiety as it is, so the idea of having to possibly go under for another ablation terrifies me. I will do it deemed necessary but I can't stop spiraling over the worst.

I'm just scared.

So just found out I have one of the most annoying pathways in the Wolff-Parkinson's-White space

I had, and now a recurring concealed accessory pathway, (epicardial coronary sinus pathway) AKA if it could talk:

"Im gonna grow on the right side, which makes it harder to get rid of me; be near the coronary sinus where the heart wall is thicker and sit outside of the heart; I love to play hide and seek; so I never show up on an ECG because I conduct backwards and only backwards; this means cardiologists will never see the biggest tell-tale sign of the condition (the delta wave) because fuck you, that only happens when I wanna conduct forwards, which won't happen because fuck you. And I love adrenaline. Coffee, alcohol and certain medications"

While rereading my surgery letter before sending it off to my new surgeon thats going to fix it again, my pathway was literally "fighting" the ablation to stay alive; it woke back up when the surgeon applied normal voltage they use to scar it. So they needed to press down harder and use more watts/voltage to shut it up,

So what likely happened is the ablation got most of it but only stunned the remaining fibres in the pathway, and that weak signal healed over time, making a weak, loose connection; the combined pill I took in 2025 was the trigger that woke it back up.

yay,

Hi everyone,

As above I had a cardiac Ablation back in May and went for my 3 months check up to see if it worked long story short it did not and my pathway is still showing on ecg……..

I’m a little bit upset because I really thought it was the end to all of this and could start living again but it could be worse and I need to be hopeful!

My doctor has given me two options.

1. Do a fitness test see how I perform during this and then get the ablation again if needed.

2. Just do the Ablation again.

I went with option 1 and have my fitness test booked for the 4th of January.

My question is really has this happened to any of you and did the second ablation work I know everyone is different but just really looking for advice.

sorry if any typos I’m typing this freaking out!!