A study of blood pressure variations in different phases of menstrual cycle in medical students

Abstract

Background: A normal menstrual cycle in females involves a number of physiological and biochemical changes, occurring under the influence of sex hormones. These sex hormones are in turn maintained by the hypothalamic-pituitary and ovarian axis. It is well known that sex hormones have an influence on the cardiovascular system, whereas it is uncertain how exactly these hormones influence the changes in blood pressure. Therefore, the goal of this study is to observe the changes in blood pressure during different phases of the menstrual cycle in young women and also try to know the probable association of these changes to the varying hormonal levels. Aims and Objectives: (i) To observe the changes in blood pressure during different phases of the menstrual cycle; (ii) To know the probable hormonal cause responsible for these changes. Materials and Methods: One hundred healthy female medical students of age between 18 and 23 years were selected as study participants. Blood pressure was recorded during the menstrual phase (2nd–5th day), proliferative phase (11th–14th day), and secretory phase (SP) (22nd–24th day), using a mercury sphygmomanometer. All the values were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS 17.0 software. Student t-test was applied to compare two independent groups. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In this study, it was found that there are variations of blood pressure during different phases of the menstrual cycle. The variations in blood pressure were found to be statistically highly significant when the menstrual phase was compared with the proliferative and SP (P < 0.0001), whereas the blood pressure variations of the proliferative and SP showed no statistical significance, as (P > 0.05). Conclusion: A highly significant difference in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure among different phases of the menstrual cycle was observed, indicating the effect of hormones on the menstrual cycle, low levels were recorded during the follicular phase, which could be due to the effect of estrogen, this could be the cause for the development of hypertension during menopause in females.