Quantitative meta-analysis of heart rate variability finds reduced parasympathetic cardiac tone in women compared to men during laboratory-based social stress.

Abstract Heart rate variability (HRV) is the inter-beat interval variation between consecutive heartbeats and an autonomic reflection of emotional regulation abilities to flexibly respond to challenges, such as psychosocial stress. Whereas there are known sex differences in stress-induced hormonal and emotional responses, we identified a gap in our understanding of sex-specific autonomic cardiac control during stress. Thus, we assessed HRV prior to, during and after administration of a public speech task in healthy participants (n = 929) according to sex. Our meta-analysis found that during stress, women had lower HRV than men, with an overall Hedges’ g of 0.29 (p