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. 2020 Nov;33(6):706-715.
doi: 10.1080/10615806.2020.1802434. Epub 2020 Aug 3.

The role of health anxiety in the experience of perceived stress across the menstrual cycle

D R Shayani  1   2 , K A Arditte Hall  3 , B C Isley  2   4 , K J Rohan  5 , M J Zvolensky  6   7   8 , Y I Nillni  1   9
Affiliations

The role of health anxiety in the experience of perceived stress across the menstrual cycle

D R Shayani et al. Anxiety Stress Coping. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Hormonal variation throughout the menstrual cycle influences physiological and psychological symptoms, although not for all women. Individual differences in health anxiety (HA) might help to explain the differences in physiological and psychological symptoms and perceived stress observed across women. Design: We examined the moderating role of HA in the relation between menstrual phase and premenstrual symptom severity and perceived stress. Methods: A total of 38 women completed visits in both late luteal and follicular phases, with visit order randomized. Menstrual phase was verified using day-count, a luteinizing hormone test, and progesterone assay. Results: Linear mixed models revealed that women experienced more premenstrual symptoms during the late luteal phase vs. the follicular phase; however, HA did not moderate this effect. There was a significant HA × menstrual cycle phase interaction for perceived stress. During the late luteal phase, women with higher HA reported greater perceived stress compared to women with lower HA. In the follicular phase, women with higher and lower HA reported similar levels of perceived stress. Conclusion: Higher levels of HA may play a role in the experience of perceived stress in specific phases of the menstrual cycle.

Keywords: health anxiety; menstrual cycle; perceived stress; premenstrual symptoms; psychosomatic gynecology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interaction between Health Anxiety (HA) and Menstrual Cycle Phase for A) Premenstrual Symptoms and B) Perceived Stress Note. DRSP = Daily Record of Severity of Problems; PSS = Perceived Stress Scale; HA assessed using the Health Anxiety Inventory; Low HA = 4.86; Average HA = 10.39; High HA = 15.93.
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