---
title: Do women with PMS have different nervous system activity? | Niyora
description: Yes. Women with PMS showed different nervous system patterns during the luteal phase, but the exact cause is still unknown.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/symathovagal-imbalance-in-premenstrual-syndrome-2013/
---

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- Do women with PMS have different nervous system activity?

Case-control study, 2013

# Do women with PMS have different nervous system activity?

Yes. Women with PMS showed different nervous system patterns during the luteal phase, but the exact cause is still unknown.

 Moderate study design

Young women with PMS and control women

## What they did

Measured nervous system activity in women with PMS and control women during two phases of the menstrual cycle.

## What they found

During the follicular phase, both parts of the nervous system showed slightly higher activity in the PMS group, but this was not a clear difference. During the luteal phase, women with PMS had a clear increase in one part (sympathetic activity) and a clear decrease in another part (parasympathetic activity). The number of PMS symptoms was related to these nervous system activity patterns.

## What it means for you

These nervous system differences might explain why women with PMS have symptoms, but this is a small study and the exact mechanism is still unknown.

## About the study

Original title Symathovagal imbalance in premenstrual syndrome Authors Kulshreshtha M, Kumar Y, Agarwal V et al. Journal Indian journal of physiology and pharmacology Year 2013 Study design Case-control study Read the paper [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24968585/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24968585/)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)

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