Why the study?
Because sympathetic support of blood pressure is modulated by ovarian sex hormones, the authors evaluated the effect of menstrual cycle and oral hormonal contraceptive pill phase on the hemodynamic response to acute sympathetic activation via the cold pressor test.
Does oral hormonal contraceptive pill use alter the hemodynamic response to the cold pressor test compared to natural menstrual cycles?
Does oral hormonal contraceptive pill use alter the hemodynamic response to the cold pressor test compared to natural menstrual cycles?
Oral contraceptive use is associated with paradoxical vasodilation during acute sympathetic activation via the cold pressor test compared to natural menstrual cycles.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
OC users may exhibit paradoxical vasodilation during sympathetic activation; hypothesis-generating for hormonal modulation of BP responses.
Acute increases in sympathetic nervous system activity often elicit peripheral vasoconstriction and increases in blood pressure (BP). Given sympathetic support of BP is modulated by ovarian sex hormones (e.g., estradiol), we sought to examine the effect of menstrual cycle and oral hormonal contraceptive pill (OC) phase on the hemodynamic response to acute increases in sympathetic nervous system activity via the cold pressor test. We show OC participants exhibit paradoxical vasodilation during acute sympathetic activation compared with participants with natural menstrual cycles; notably, group differences were unaffected by menstrual/pill phase.
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Jacob et al. (2022) studied this question.
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