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Thromb Haemost 1991; 66(05): 614-618
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1646469
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH Stuttgart

Hemostatic Responses to Mental Stress during the Menstrual Cycle

Christina Jern
The Department of Clinical Physiology, University of Göteborg, Östra Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
,
Karin Manhem
The Department of Clinical Physiology, University of Göteborg, Östra Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
,
Elsa Eriksson
1   The Department of Surgery, Östra and Sahlgren's Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
,
Lilian Tengborn
2   The Section of Coagulation Disorders, Sahlgren's Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
,
Bo Risberg
1   The Department of Surgery, Östra and Sahlgren's Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
,
Sverker Jern
The Department of Clinical Physiology, University of Göteborg, Östra Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Received 15 January 1991

Accepted 24 April 1991

Publication Date:
25 July 2018 (online)

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Summary

To study the effect of sex hormones on the hemostatic responses to stress, blood samples were collected before, during, and after 20 min of mental stress from 9 healthy, non-smoking female volunteers, examined in the follicular and luteal phase. Mental stress caused significant increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and plasma catecholamines. In addition, analysis of variance indicated significant changes of leukocyte count, hematocrit, fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor antigen, t-PA activity and antigen in response to the stress test. However, in contrast to a male group previously investigated, there were no significant changes in factor VII coagulant activity in either menstrual phase. Overall the responses were more pronounced in the luteal as compared to the follicular phase. The findings support the concept that both gender and physiological variations in female sex hormones may modulate hemostatic responses to psychosocial stress.

 

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