---
title: Does stress before your period make menstrual symptoms worse?
description: Yes. Women with high stress in the month before their period had much worse menstrual symptoms, including both mood and physical symptoms.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/perceived-stress-and-severity-of-perimenstrual-symptoms-the-biocycle-study-2010/
---

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- Does stress before your period make menstrual symptoms worse?

Cohort study, 2010

# Does stress before your period make menstrual symptoms worse?

Yes. Women with high stress in the month before their period had much worse menstrual symptoms, including both mood and physical symptoms.

 Moderate study design

259 healthy women with regular menstrual cycles

## What they did

259 healthy women with regular periods filled out stress surveys at the start and again during their cycle. They rated 17 menstrual symptoms as none, mild, moderate, or severe each week for 2 cycles. Researchers compared stress levels to symptom severity.

## What they found

Women with the highest stress were 7.2 times more likely to report 8 or more moderate or severe symptoms and 2.5 times more likely to report 5 or more symptoms during the perimenstrual period. Stress was strongly linked to worse psychological and physical symptoms overall (p less than 0.0001).

## What it means for you

High stress appears to make menstrual symptoms worse. Reducing stress could help ease symptoms. The study shows correlation, not that stress directly causes worse symptoms. Results adjusted for age, smoking, and body shape.

259

women studied

7.2

odds ratio for 8+ severe symptoms with high stress

2.5

odds ratio for 5+ severe symptoms with high stress

## About the study

Original title Perceived stress and severity of perimenstrual symptoms: the BioCycle Study Authors Gollenberg AL, Hediger ML, Mumford SL et al. Journal Journal of women's health (2002) Year 2010 Study design Cohort study Participants 259 What was tested None Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2009.1717](https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2009.1717)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Pain and headache](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-pain/)[Stress](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-stress/)[Alcohol, smoking and substance use](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-substance-use/)

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