Women diagnosed with premenstrual symptoms have 10% more risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, 31% more suffering from arrhythmias and 27% more to suffer stroke caused by blood clots.
This has been discovered by a new study of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, whose details have been published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research.
Premenstrual symptoms include premenstrual syndrome (SPM) and its most serious form, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (TDPM), and in both cases, 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 monitoring of up to 22 years to 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 the hereditary factors and education.
The results show that women with premenstrual symptoms had a 10% greater 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 rate disorders (arrhythmias), where the risk was 31% greater, and in that of stroke 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 was maintained.
You may be interested: Keeping pregnant women with brain death with life support raises ethical issues that go beyond abortion policy
Women with premenstrual symptoms have more risk of heart problems
“The increase in risk was especially evident in women diagnosed before the age of 25 and in those who had also suffered postpartum depression, a condition that can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations,” warns Yihui Yang, Doctor of the Institute of Environmental Medicine of the Karolinska Institute Environmental Medicine and first author of the study.
Investigations have not yet identified the cause of this relationship, but researchers responsible for the study suggest three possible explanations.
One is that women with premenstrual symptoms can have an altered regulation of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone (RAAS) system, which controls blood pressure and liquid balance in the body, among other things.
The second is that these women have high 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 can have metabolic anomalies, 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 of the same department and co -author of the study.
With EFE information.
Do you use more Facebook? Follow us to always be informed
