Kalyani Anil Nair

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a group of physical, emotional and psychological symptoms experienced by at least 85% of the women in the reproductive age group. The symptoms start a few days after ovulation and continue till menstrual flow occurs after which it ceases. It is a major difficulty experienced by females, given its monthly occurrence. The aim of this study is to determine variations if any in heart rate and blood pressure of females during various stages of menstrual cycle. The study population, consisting of fifty first MBBS students in the age group of 17-20 years, was divided into PMS and non-PMS groups with the help of a symptom tracker that was filled by the candidates over a period of two months. During these two months, the blood pressure and heart rate of each subject was recorded on the 2nd, 12th and 22nd days corresponding to the menstrual, post-menstrual and pre-menstrual phases. Statistical analysis was done for the data obtained using one way ANOVA. It was found that the systolic blood pressure and heart rate showed significant variations in the PMS group. The systolic blood pressure (SBP) was found to be lowest during the menstrual phase (101.9 ± 0.79) which then steeply rose to 117.8 ± 0.99 during the pre-menstrual phase. It was also seen that the menstrual phase SBP of PMS subjects was lower than that of the Non-PMS subjects (111.64 ± 0.96). The heart rate also showed similar variations. From this study, it was concluded that pre-menstrual syndrome can affect systemic parameters such as blood pressure and heart rate.