---
title: Do women with severe premenstrual symptoms respond to stress differently?
description: During mental tasks, women with mild or no severe symptoms showed smaller heart rate responses in the premenstrual phase than the postmenstrual phase, but wom
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/psychophysiological-responses-in-women-reporting-severe-premenstrual-symptoms-1989/
---

- [Niyora](https://niyora.com/)
- [Research](https://niyora.com/research/)
- [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/)
- Do women with severe premenstrual symptoms respond to stress differently?

Lab study, 1989

# Do women with severe premenstrual symptoms respond to stress differently?

During mental tasks, women with mild or no severe symptoms showed smaller heart rate responses in the premenstrual phase than the postmenstrual phase, but women with severe symptoms did not.

 Early or limited evidence

16 women with severe premenstrual symptoms and 8 control women

## What they did

16 women from a premenstrual tension clinic and 8 control women were tested during the premenstrual and postmenstrual phases. Both groups completed daily symptom tracking for two menstrual cycles beforehand. Measurements included heart rate, skin conductance level, and neck muscle tension during rest, relaxation, an emotionally upsetting film, mental arithmetic tasks, and video game tasks.

## What they found

At rest, there were no clear differences. During relaxation, skin conductance decreased more in the premenstrual phase, while neck muscle tension showed the opposite pattern. Heart rate responses to mental tasks were smaller in the premenstrual phase in the control group and women with modest symptom changes, but not in women with marked symptom increases.

## What it means for you

Women with severe premenstrual symptoms may have altered physical stress responses, particularly during mental tasks in the premenstrual phase. However, the patterns are complex and do not suggest a single consistent difference. The study is small and cannot explain what causes these differences.

16

women with severe symptoms

8

control women

2

menstrual cycles

## About the study

Original title Psychophysiological responses in women reporting severe premenstrual symptoms Authors van den Akker O, Steptoe A Journal Psychosomatic medicine Year 1989 Study design Lab study What was tested Experimental testing of physiological responses Read the paper [doi.org/10.1097/00006842-198905000-00006](https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-198905000-00006)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Anxiety and tension](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-anxiety/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)

Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits.

Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor.

## Related studies

Randomised trial, 2026

Does aerobic or resistance exercise reduce anxiety in women with PMS?

Cohort study, 2025

How common is PMS in Chinese teenage girls, and what factors are linked to it?

Survey study, 2026

Is worry about climate change linked to worse PMS symptoms?

Survey study, 2023

How common are PMS, PMDD, anxiety, and depression in rural adolescent girls?

Survey study, 2021

What factors affect premenstrual syndrome in teenage girls?

Survey study, 2020

What topics are researchers most interested in studying about PMS and PMDD?

Ask AI about this page

Copy prompt

ChatGPT

↗

Claude

↗

Perplexity

↗

Google AI Mode

↗

Grok

↗