Sympathetic skin response in premenstrual syndrome

Abstract

Premenstrual syndrome is a term which includes a broad group of emotional, behavioral and physical symptoms that occur for several days before menses and subside following the menstrual period. Many women experience premenstrual syndrome symptoms, particularly physical ones such as breast tenderness and swelling. Approximately 5-10% women suffer from severe premenstrual syndrome and another 30-40% have moderate symptoms. Premenstrual syndrome continues to be an unsolved problem. In this study, we evaluated 24 premenstrual syndrome patients and 20 healthy women in the control group. The ages of the women were 22-34 years (mean +/- SD: 25+/-3) for the premenstrual syndrome group and 23-34 (25+/-3) for the control group. The sympathetic skin response was recorded from the palms, soles and genital regions by using electrical stimuli to the median nerve at the wrist. The sympathetic skin response was recorded twice, in the follicular and late luteal phases of menstruation. The follicular and late luteal phase sympathetic skin response of the two groups were compared. The amplitudes and latency values of the late luteal and follicular phase sympathetic skin response from the premenstrual syndrome group and control group women were statistically similar. We also did not find any latency or amplitude difference in the sympathetic skin response obtained from the three regions of the premenstrual syndrome patients and the control group. We checked sympathetic skin response in the symptomatic (late luteal phase) and asymptomatic (follicular phase) periods of patients with premenstrual syndrome, a disorder known to have many autonomic symptoms, to determine whether there was sudomotor sympathetic involvement. The results of our PMS patients indicate at the very least that there is no difference with the control subjects as regards peripheral sudomotor functions.