Cohort study, 2024
Can a wearable fitness tracker spot premenstrual disorders by measuring heart rate?
In women with premenstrual disorders, lower heart rate variability around their period was linked to worse symptoms, especially mood symptoms, while no such link appeared in women without these disorders. This is an early observational finding, not yet a proven test.
What they did
Researchers followed 193 women (68 with confirmed premenstrual disorders) who wore a Huawei fitness tracker recording heart rate variability every 5 minutes overnight, across 1 to 2 menstrual cycles (293 cycles total). Each day, participants also rated their symptoms using a standard symptom scale (the Daily Record of Severity of Problems).
What they found
In everyone, heart rate variability measures (SDNN, rMSSD, HF) dropped before the period and rose afterward, with a bigger rise in women without premenstrual disorders. In women with premenstrual disorders, lower rMSSD after the period was tied to worse symptoms (beta = -0.036 per SD change, 95% CI -0.048 to -0.065), but there was no such link in women without these disorders (beta = -0.001, 95% CI -0.011 to 0.009; difference p<0.001). The link was stronger for mood symptoms than physical ones, and strongest before the period in women with the more severe form, PMDD.
What it means for you
Wearable heart-rate tracking might one day help flag premenstrual disorders more easily than today's time-consuming questionnaires, but this is early, observational research done in one cohort. It cannot yet diagnose an individual and needs confirmation in other groups.
193
Women studied
68
Had confirmed PMD
293
Menstrual cycles tracked
About the study
- Original title
- Wearable-Measured Heart Rate Variability and Premenstrual Disorder Symptoms across Menstrual Cycle
- Authors
- Pan Q, Zhou J, Chen M et al.
- Journal
- medRxiv
- Year
- 2024
- Study design
- Cohort study
- Participants
- 193
- What was tested
- None tested; this was observational monitoring with a wearable heart-rate device.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.27.24316196
Topics
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