Study, 2009
Does your body handle mental stress differently depending on your menstrual cycle phase?
No. The study found no clear differences in how the cardiovascular system or blood responded to mental stress between the follicular and luteal phases.
What they did
Twelve women completed a prolonged mental stress task during two menstrual phases (follicular and luteal). Researchers measured blood characteristics, blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability before, during, and after the stress task.
What they found
The stress task increased blood thickness, blood pressure, and heart rate while decreasing heart rate variability. However, there were no effects of menstrual phase on these responses either at rest or during stress, nor did menstrual phase affect how these measures changed over the course of the stress task.
What it means for you
Your menstrual cycle phase does not appear to affect how your cardiovascular system responds to mental stress. This suggests that cycle phase differences in heart attack risk are likely caused by something other than stress response. The study was very small.
12
women studied
About the study
- Original title
- Mental stress-induced haemoconcentration in women: effects of menstrual cycle phase
- Authors
- Veldhuijzen van Zanten JJ, Carroll D, Ring C
- Journal
- British journal of health psychology
- Year
- 2009
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 12
- What was tested
- Mental stress task during different menstrual cycle phases
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1348/135910709x425734
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