Sex and stress: Men and women show different cortisol responses to psychological stress induced by the Trier social stress test and the Iowa singing social stress test

Abstract

Acute psychological stress affects each of us in our daily lives and is increasingly a topic of discussion for its role in mental illness, aging, cognition, and overall health. Better understanding of how such stress affects the body and mind could contribute to the development of more effective clinical interventions and prevention practices. Over the past three decades, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has been widely used to induce acute stress in a laboratory setting based on the principles of social evaluative threat - namely, a judged speech-making task. A comparable alternative task may expand options for examining acute stress in a controlled laboratory setting. Here, we used a within-subjects design to examine healthy adult participants’ (n=20 men, n=20 women) subjective stress and salivary cortisol responses to the standard TSST (involving public speaking and math) and the newly created Iowa Singing Social Stress Test (I-SSST). The I-SSST is similar to the TSST, but with a new twist: public singing. Results indicate that men and women reported similarly high levels of subjective stress in response to both tasks. However, men and women demonstrated different cortisol responses: men showed a robust response to both tasks, and women displayed a smaller response. These findings are consistent with previous literature, and further underscore the importance of examining possible sex differences throughout various phases of research, including design, analysis, and interpretation of results. Furthermore, this nascent examination of the I-SSST suggests a possible alternative for inducing stress in the laboratory.

Differential associations between psychosocial stress and obesity among Ghanaians in Europe and in Ghana: findings from the RODAM study

“…In terms of sex variations, the stronger associations of a psychosocial stress factor with obesity observed in migrant males compared to females were consistent with literature [29,52]. While the reasons behind these sex variations remain unclear, different hormonal responses to stressful situations are suggested to be involved [53][54][55]. Indeed, men have been shown to respond to stressful situations with an increased glucocorticoid response compared to women, even when the reported subjective stress was identical [53].…”

“…While the reasons behind these sex variations remain unclear, different hormonal responses to stressful situations are suggested to be involved [53][54][55]. Indeed, men have been shown to respond to stressful situations with an increased glucocorticoid response compared to women, even when the reported subjective stress was identical [53]. Therefore, male Ghanaian migrants who reported the same stressful life events as females may actually have been exposed to higher glucocorticoid levels, which are known to promote energy storage as fat, affect food reward value typically increasing appetite, and have been associated with increased likelihoods of obesity [25,26,56].…”

Sex differences in executive functioning and latent herpesvirus reactivation among bereaved and nonbereaved individuals

“…Prior evidence indicates that women have less reactive cortisol responses to psychological stressors in comparison with men, which could explain why they have greater immune dysregulation due to bereavement given the anti‐inflammatory role of cortisol (Reschke‐Hernandez, Okerstrom, Edwards, & Tranel, ). Cacioppo et al () hypothesized that stress hormones including cortisol could reactivate latent EBV and enhance replication of the virus.…”

Gonadal hormones modulate the HPA‐axis and the SNS in response to psychosocial stress

“…For the HPA system, controlling for testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone diminished the impact of stress on cortisol reactivity. As in previous studies (e.g., Reschke‐Hernández et al, ), the analysis of the effects of the stress procedure on cortisol levels was conducted with a distinction between participants who showed stress‐induced elevations of cortisol (i.e. responders) and those who did not (i.e., nonresponders).…”

“…Due to the large variability observed among participants in their cortisol reactivity and in order to focus on the factors particularly associated with stress-induced elevations in stress biomarkers, the sample was divided into responders and nonresponders according to Schommer, Hellhammer, & Kirschbaum (2003) and Hidalgo et al (2012). Participants who demonstrated an increase in salivary cortisol from T1 (baseline level) to T3 (10 min following completion of the TSST) were considered "responders" (N 5 23) as in previous similar studies (Reschke-Hern andez, Okerstrom, Bowles Edwards, & Tranel, 2017 Pearson's correlations (one-tailed) were calculated in order to examine the association between baseline sex hormone concentrations and cortisol and sAA reactivity. To this end, cortisol and sAA reactivity were calculated as the change in the scores of each from their baseline values, at T3 and T2, respectively.…”