Add it to the list of reasons women's cardiovascular health calls for its own attention, suggests this update from a team of public health scientists.
Long known for symptoms that can include headache, fatigue, bloating, G.I. unease, hormone-induced moodiness, and more, premenstrual syndrome is already, well, a pain. Now, a 2025 study shows that there’s another surprising way PMS and its more severe iteration, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), can affect your health and wellbeing: by spiking your risk of heart disease later in life.
Published by a group of epidemiologists in the peer-reviewed Nature Cardiovascular Research, the study looked at 22 years of health data from two subsets of women—
- A general population cohort, which included:
- More than 99,000 women with symptoms
- More than 947,000 women without symptoms
- A “sister cohort,” analyzing female siblings:
- More than 36,000 sisters with symptoms
- More than 45,000 sisters without symptoms
By comparing sisters in addition to the general population, they were able to look at broader trends while also controlling for hereditary and lifestyle factors related to upbringing. They noted “both the population and sibling analyses showed a positive association” between premenstrual disorders and heart health.
The team discovered that compared with women who did not experience premenstrual disorders, those who did had about a 10% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, “including hypertensive diseases, essential hypertension, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, ischemic stroke and arrhythmia.” Most notably, women with premenstrual disorders had a 31% higher risk of heart rhythm disorders, and a 27% higher risk of stroke caused by a blood clot.
“The increased risk was particularly clear in women who were diagnosed before the age of 25 and in those who had also experienced postnatal depression, a condition that can also be caused by hormonal fluctuations,” the lead author of the study was quoted as having said. “Similar results were seen when the cutoff was set at ages 30 and 35 years,” the study states.
The findings could be relevant to a surprisingly large cohort of women, given how common premenstrual disorders are. The study notes that up to 30% of women of reproductive age are affected by premenstrual syndrome and up to 8% are affected by premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Scientists are still working to understand how period symptoms and heart health are linked, and whether that link is cause-and-effect. However, they note that abnormal hormonal fluctuations, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and other factors could be fueling the connection.
If the results are confirmed by further research, premenstrual disorders may soon be considered a risk factor for future cardiovascular risk—making it not just a nuisance, but an important consideration to discuss with your doctor.
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