Women with premenstrual symptoms are at higher risk of heart problems

Women diagnosed with premenstrual symptoms have a 10% higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, a 31% higher risk of suffering from arrhythmias, and a 27% higher risk of suffering from strokes caused by blood clots.

This has been discovered by a new study from the Karolinska Institute of Sweden, the details of which were published this Friday in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research. Premenstrual symptoms include premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its more severe form, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and in both cases, the symptoms, which appear a few days before menstruation and then disappear, can be both psychological and physical. The authors of the study, based on the follow-up of up to 22 years of more than 99,000 women with premenstrual symptoms, compared their health with that of women without these symptoms, both in the general population and with their own sisters to take into account hereditary factors and education. The results show that women with premenstrual symptoms had a 10% higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. When analyzing different types of cardiovascular diseases, they discovered that the relationship was especially strong in the case of heart rhythm disorders (arrhythmias), where the risk was 31% higher, and in the case of strokes caused by blood clots, where the risk was 27% higher. Even after taking into account other factors such as smoking, body mass index, and mental health, the relationship between premenstrual symptoms and increased risk of disease remained. "The increased risk was especially evident in women diagnosed before the age of 25 and in those who had also suffered from postpartum depression, a condition that can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations," warns Yihui Yang, a doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet and first author of the study.

They suggest three possible explanations

The investigations have not yet identified the cause of this relationship, but the researchers responsible for the study suggest three possible explanations. One is that women with premenstrual symptoms may have altered regulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), which controls blood pressure and fluid balance in the body, among other things.

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The second is that these women have elevated levels of inflammation in the body, which is a known risk factor for atherosclerosis and other heart problems. The last explanation could be that women with premenstrual symptoms may have metabolic abnormalities, which are related to a higher risk of stroke and heart attack. "We hope that our findings will contribute to a greater awareness that premenstrual disorders not only affect daily life, but can also have long-term health consequences," explains Donghao Lu, associate professor in the same department and co-author of the study.