Evaluation of Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Variability during Different Phases of Menstrual Cycle

Abstract

Introduction: Every month, between puberty and menopause, a woman’s body goes through a number of changes to get it ready for a possible pregnancy. This series of hormone-driven events is called the menstrual cycle. A woman’s menstrual cycle is divided into three phases- proliferative phase, secretory phase and menstrual phase.  The hormonal surge during each phase causes profound effects on the cardiovascular system as well. However, previous research reported conflicting results in this concept. Thus the controversial statements associating blood pressure and heart rate variability with menstrual cycle promoted this research. Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the blood pressure and heart rate variability during different phases of the menstrual cycle. Materials and Methods: 20 healthy women belonging to the proliferative, secretory and menstrual phase of the menstrual cycle were analyzed for autonomic functions tests using systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate and heart rate variability. Results: It showed that there was a statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate during the secretory phase. There was an increase in heart rate variability during the menstrual phase but this was statistically insignificant. Conclusion:  The study concluded that there were significant changes in blood pressure during the secretory phase and pulse rate and insignificant increase in heart rate variability during the menstrual phase. Thus, the study also concluded that sympathetic nervous activity in the secretory phase is significantly greater than in the proliferative phase, whereas parasympathetic nervous activity is predominant in the proliferative phase.