Menstrual cycle, heart rate and HRV: what changes and why

Here's the heart rate and menstrual cycle pattern in one paragraph: resting heart rate tends to be lowest during your period, rises after ovulation, and peaks in the mid-luteal phase, about a week before your next period. Heart rate variability (HRV) does roughly the opposite, dipping in the luteal phase. The shifts are real and measurable, and they're small: a few beats per minute, a few percent of HRV. They're not a sign that your fitness changed.

Below: what happens to heart rate and HRV across the cycle, how big the changes are, what's known (and not known) about heart rate during exercise, and how to read your watch without panicking once a month. Whether you plan your own training or use an AI coach that plans your running and lifting together, knowing the pattern stops you misreading normal physiology as a recovery problem.

For the practical side of training through the whole cycle, start with workout with menstruation explained. This post is the heart rate and HRV deep dive.

One ground rule: this is about training data, not health screening. If you notice palpitations, a racing heart at rest, dizziness or chest pain, see a doctor.

Heart rate and menstrual cycle: the short version

The table is the pattern from the studies below, not a rule for every cycle. Real cycles vary, and so do the women in them.

What it means for training is simple: a few extra beats and a slightly lower HRV in the second half of your cycle are expected, not a reason to cancel the week. A plan with hard days, easy days and room to swap sessions, such as a 3-day plan for women with running built in, already handles the odd rough day without needing a calendar of hormones.

How resting heart rate changes across the menstrual cycle

The clearest data on menstrual cycle and heart rate comes from wearables worn overnight, because sleeping heart rate isn't muddied by coffee, stairs or your inbox.

In a study of 91 women who wore wrist sensors during sleep across 274 ovulatory cycles, with ovulation estimated by urine tests:

• ›Pulse rate was 2.1 beats per minute higher in the fertile window than during the menstrual phase.
• ›It was 1.8 beats per minute higher again in the mid-luteal phase than in the fertile window.
• ›Mid-luteal pulse rate was 3.8 beats per minute higher than during the menstrual phase.

Those increases held up after the authors adjusted for behavioral and nutritional factors they collected daily.

A 2024 study using Oura rings in 116 women, aged 18 to 35 and 42 to 55, found the same direction: in those whose temperature rhythm suggested an ovulatory cycle, heart rate was lowest during menses in both age groups.

And in everyday life, the change is modest. In an app dataset of morning readings, among 639 women who logged at least five cycles, resting heart rate differed by about 1.6% between the follicular and luteal phases (Altini & Plews, 2021).

Why does it happen?

The rise lines up with the luteal phase, when progesterone is at its highest of the cycle and estrogen is also high (Elliott-Sale et al., 2021). The studies above show when heart rate moves, not exactly why, so we'll stop there rather than dress up a hypothesis as fact. The phase-by-phase breakdown of menstrual cycle hormones covers what's rising and falling when.

Heart rate variability and menstrual cycle changes

HRV moves in the opposite direction to resting heart rate, and the evidence for that is fairly consistent.

• ›The big picture. A meta-analysis of 37 studies and 1,004 women found a significant decrease in cardiac vagal activity, the parasympathetic side of HRV, from the follicular to the luteal phase. In the studies that compared finer-grained phases, the biggest drops were from the menstrual or mid-to-late follicular phase into the premenstrual days.
• ›In the lab. A small study of 13 women with resting ECGs at five points in the cycle found heart rate rose and time-domain HRV fell across the cycle.
• ›On wearables. A 2026 living systematic review of 16 wearable studies found HRV was higher at the beginning of the cycle and lower toward the end, with differences in time-domain HRV ranging from 3 to 9%. The authors rated evidence quality as moderate and noted that inconsistent phase definitions made the studies hard to pool.
• ›In real life. In the app data, morning RMSSD changed by about 3.2% between the follicular and luteal phases (Altini & Plews, 2021). The same dataset found high alcohol intake dropped HRV by about 12% and sickness by about 10%. A night out moves your HRV more than your cycle does.

Not everyone shows the pattern. In the Oura study, RMSSD was lower in the late luteal phase than during menses only in the younger group, not the midlife group (Alzueta et al., 2024).

If you want to know what counts as a typical number in the first place, whats a normal hrv for women has the published ranges by age. Short version: your own baseline beats any chart.

What about hormonal contraception?

The pattern above is for natural cycles. Hormonal contraception changes the hormone profile, so it changes the heart picture too. In the 2026 living review, hormonal contraceptive users showed lower HRV, particularly in the late part of the cycle.

That doesn't mean the pill hurts training. A 2020 meta-analysis of 42 studies found any performance difference between pill users and naturally menstruating women was most likely trivial, and that performance was consistent across the pill cycle. Contraception is a decision for you and your doctor, not your watch.

Heart rate during exercise across the cycle

This is where the evidence gets thin, and we're not going to fill the gap with guesses.

What we did find:

• ›Effort doesn't change on average. A 2024 meta-analysis of 17 studies and 160 women found cycle phase did not impact rating of perceived exertion during aerobic exercise.
• ›Early heart rate response looked similar. A tiny 2003 study of seven women and seven men found heart rate responses at the onset of exercise were almost equal in the follicular and luteal phases. Seven women is not a verdict.
• ›Training around the cycle didn't add anything. In a 2024 trial, 33 moderately trained women did eight weeks of polarized running, with hard sessions either matched to the follicular phase or deliberately placed against it. Both groups improved VO2 max and threshold speeds, with no extra benefit from the cycle-matched version. It was small and the authors call for larger studies, so read it as "no evidence of a benefit", not "proof of nothing".

So what do you do if your easy run reads five beats higher than usual in your luteal phase? Run by effort. Easy is still conversational. Heart rate zones are a tool, not a contract, and a few beats on one run is not a fitness verdict.

The same logic applies to fitness testing. We haven't found good evidence that your cycle meaningfully changes a VO2 max result. Still, if you do a VO2 max or threshold test, retesting at a similar point in your cycle keeps the comparison clean, whether you're comparing with your last test or with a vo2 max by age female chart.

How to read your heart rate and HRV across the cycle

1. ›Log day one of your period each cycle. It's the anchor for everything else.
2. ›Measure the same way every time. Same device, same time (overnight or on waking), same position.
3. ›Compare cycle to cycle. Your luteal phase this month against your luteal phase last month, not against last week.
4. ›Watch the 7-day trend, not single days. One low HRV reading is noise.
5. ›Log the bigger confounders: alcohol, illness, bad sleep, travel. They move the numbers more than your cycle does.
6. ›Let symptoms lead. If you feel rough, adjust the session; if the data says "luteal" but you feel great, train.

That last one matters on day one especially. Your resting heart rate may be at its lowest of the month just as cramps arrive. Our guide to working out on your period covers how to decide what to do on those days.

When to see a doctor

Small, cyclical shifts in heart rate and HRV are normal. A resting heart rate that's suddenly far above your usual range, palpitations, fainting, chest pain, or symptoms that worry you are not training questions. See a doctor. The same goes for periods that are very heavy, very painful or irregular.

How exrsz handles this

exrsz builds a periodized plan from your goal, schedule, level and equipment, with running and lifting balanced in one plan. It adapts each week to how you actually trained and reshuffles missed sessions, so a rough few days lead to a sensible next week rather than a pile of make-up workouts. It doesn't diagnose anything.

FAQ

Does heart rate increase during your period?

Usually not. In a study of 91 women, sleeping pulse rate was lower in the menstrual phase than in the fertile window or the mid-luteal phase.

Why is my resting heart rate higher before my period?

It tends to rise after ovulation and stay up through the luteal phase. In a study of 91 women, mid-luteal pulse rate averaged 3.8 beats per minute higher than during menstruation.

Does HRV change with the menstrual cycle?

Yes. A meta-analysis of 37 studies found a significant decrease in vagally mediated HRV from the follicular to the luteal phase. In everyday app data the shift was about 3.2% (Altini & Plews, 2021).

Does birth control affect heart rate variability?

It can. A 2026 living review of wearable studies found hormonal contraceptive users had lower HRV, particularly in the late cycle. A separate meta-analysis found any effect of the pill on performance was most likely trivial.

Should I train by heart rate in my luteal phase?

You can, but use effort as the tiebreaker. Resting heart rate runs a few beats higher in the luteal phase (Shilaih et al., 2017), so if an easy run reads high, slow to a conversational pace rather than chasing a number.