Study, 2012
Does stress affect your body differently during your luteal phase?
Yes, women show greater heart rate and blood pressure increases to stress during their luteal phase compared to their follicular phase. Sleep and negative mood together affect how much anxiety stress causes during the luteal phase.
What they did
87 women completed two lab sessions - one during their follicular phase (days 5-9 of their cycle) and one during their luteal phase (7-10 days after ovulation). They did two types of stress tests: one physical (putting their hand in cold water) and one mental task. Researchers measured heart rate, blood pressure, and anxiety before and after each test.
What they found
Women showed greater increases in heart rate and blood pressure during the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase in response to stress. Sleep hours and negative mood together affected luteal phase anxiety. Women with negative mood and fewer sleep hours showed more anxiety in response to stress.
What it means for you
Your body's stress response changes across your cycle, with greater reactivity during the luteal phase. If you are in your luteal phase with premenstrual symptoms and not sleeping well, stress affects you more. The main limitation is that these were artificial stressors in a lab, not real-life situations.
87
women
days 5-9
follicular phase
days 7-10
luteal phase
About the study
- Original title
- Hemodynamic and psychological responses to laboratory stressors in women: assessing the roles of menstrual cycle phase, premenstrual symptomatology, and sleep characteristics
- Authors
- Lustyk MK, Douglas HA, Shilling EA et al.
- Journal
- International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
- Year
- 2012
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 87
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.10.009
Topics
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