Table 1.

Effect of ovarian cycle on HPA axis response to acute stress.

Species	Stressor	Phase of the cycle	HPA axis response	References
Rats	Surgery	On the morning of proestrus	Positive	[38]
	20-min restraint	On the morning of proestrus vs either estrus or diestrus	Increased	[39]
		Proestrus, estrus and diestrus II	No cycle effect	[40]
Rhesus monkeys	30-min intracerebroventricular administration of interleukin-1α	Mid-follicular vs early-follicular phase	Increased	[41]
Women	Bilateral ovariectomy plus total hysterectomy	Mid- to late-follicular phase	Positive	[43]
		Early- to mid-luteal phase	No response	[42,43]
	Cholecystectomy	Early- to mid-follicular phase	Positive	[42]
	20-min progressive submaximal treadmill exercise	Mid-luteal phase vs early follicular phase	Increased	[44]
	90-min submaximal bicycle exercise	Mid-luteal phase vs mid-follicular phase	Increased	[46]
	90-min submaximal treadmill exercise	Mid-luteal phase vs early- and late-follicular phase	Increased	[47]
	60-min progressive submaximal treadmill exercise	Mid-follicular and luteal phase	No cycle effect	[49]
	Progressive maximal treadmill exercise to voluntary exhaustion or 40-min submaximal treadmill exercise	Early-follicular vs mid-luteal phase	No cycle effect	[50]
	20-min progressive submaximal aerobic treadmill	Early-mid-follicular, periovulatory and mid-late luteal phase	No cycle effect	[51]
	Psychological stress of remembering stressful situations in their lives and self-evaluation	Menstrual and periovulatory (late-follicular, ovulatory and early-luteal phases) phase	No cycle effect	[52]
	Psychological stress of self-evaluation	Ovulatory period vs premenstrual phase	Decreased	[48]