Influences of premenstrual syndrome on psychophysiological responses to acute stress

Abstract

This study investigates whether healthy women who experience premenstrual syndrome (PMS) show attenuated physiological responses to acute stress. After the initial screening involving daily records of PMS symptoms was conducted for a group of 39 women, 14 women (7, Normal group; 7, PMS group) gave their informed consent to participate in this experiment, which encompassed both the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases of their menstrual cycles. In the experiment, psychophysiological responses to a stressor (public speaking) were evaluated in terms of psychological states, heart rate, heart rate variability, and salivary cortisol levels. While both the groups showed significant psychological stress responses to the stressor, the low frequency (LF)/high frequency (HF) ratio based on heart rate variability was significantly lower in the PMS group. These results suggest a dysregulation of the stress responses in healthy women with PMS.