• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Periods Don’t Affect Your Cognitive Skills – New Study Busts Another Menstruation Myth

February 5, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Despite happening to so many of us – around 1.8 billion every month – menstruation is blighted by myriad myths and misconceptions, from the long-standing, and incorrect, belief that periods can “sync up” to the equally improbable idea that menstruating people attract bears. It’s also been suggested that a person’s cognitive skills could be impacted during that time of the month, and, once again, this has been proven untrue.

In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that verbal and spatial skills, such as word retrieval and navigation, stay relatively constant throughout the menstrual cycle, suggesting they are not affected by hormonal fluctuations as previously thought. 

Advertisement

“Verbal and spatial functions have […] been repeatedly studied along the menstrual cycle,” the team write in their paper, “with research questions following the general rationale that a ‘feminization’ of cognitive functions would occur during phases with higher levels of ovarian hormones.” It has therefore been hypothesized that verbal performance improves and spatial performance is impaired during the peri-ovulatory or luteal phases. 

To investigate further, the researchers analyzed verbal and spatial skills across the menstrual cycle in a series of studies. All participants were female, aged 18 to 35 years, did not use hormonal birth control, had no underlying health conditions, and a cycle between 21 and 35 days in length.

In one study, participants completed an at-home verbal memory and mental rotation task for up to 80 days (two to three menstrual cycles). In another, they completed sessions in a computer laboratory either during their period, two to three days before ovulation, or a week before their next period. This time, the tests included a verbal fluency task, a mental rotation task, and a navigation task. Saliva samples were collected at each time point to assess hormone levels.

What they found goes against recent studies that have reported brain changes in response to hormonal fluctuations along the menstrual cycle. Instead, they demonstrate, there is “substantial consistency” in verbal and spatial performance, suggesting the menstrual cycle has no effect on these skills. 

Advertisement

“We conclude that verbal and spatial performance remain relatively stable along the menstrual cycle in human females,” the researchers write. “Associations of verbal and spatial performance to ovarian hormones are likely weak and not moderated by individual hormone sensitivity.”

However, they add, inter-individual variability is worth exploring further: menstruation could affect cognition differently for different people. For example, those who have irregular cycles or are particularly sensitive to hormonal changes. “These findings don’t mean that these hormones don’t matter for [cognition],” The University of Toronto’s Liisa Galea told New Scientist. “This just tells us that across a quote unquote normal menstrual cycle, we don’t see these kinds of effects.”

Want to bust some more period myths? Look out for our exclusive interview with gynecologist Dr Jen Gunter in the upcoming issue of CURIOUS, our free e-magazine, out February 25. Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered directly to your inbox.

The study is published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Soccer – FIFA backs down on threat to fine Premier clubs who play South American players
  2. U.S. House passes abortion rights bill, outlook poor in Senate
  3. Two children killed in missile strikes on Yemen’s Marib – state news agency
  4. We’ve Breached Six Of The Nine “Planetary Boundaries” For Sustaining Human Civilization

Source Link: Periods Don’t Affect Your Cognitive Skills – New Study Busts Another Menstruation Myth

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The Aztec Origins Of The Day Of The Dead (And The Celtic Roots Of Halloween)
  • Large, Bright, And Gold: Get Ready For The Biggest Supermoon Of The Year
  • For Just Two Days A Year, These Male Toads Turn A Jazzy Bright Yellow. Now We Know Why
  • Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Back From Behind The Sun – Still Not An Alien Spacecraft, Though
  • Bowhead Whales Can Live For 200 Years – This May Explain Their Extraordinary Longevity
  • Trump Orders First Nuclear Weapons Test In The US Since 1992 – Here’s What You Need To Know
  • Tiny Triceratops-Tackling Tyrannosaur Was Its Own Species, Not A Baby T. Rex
  • What Makes Ammolite Gemstones, A Rare Kind Of Fossilized Ammonite, So Vibrant? It’s All In The Nacre
  • Something Melted This Tesla’s Windscreen. Could It Have Been A World-First Meteorite Collision?
  • Carnivorous “Death-Ball” Sponge Among 30 New Deep-Sea Weirdos Discovered In The Southern Ocean
  • Chimps Can Revise Beliefs When Confronted With Conflicting Evidence. Can You?
  • Explosive Airbursts, Like Tunguska, Might Be Hiding Among “Halloween Fireballs” Meteor Shower
  • One Of The World’s Rarest Penguins Is Actually Three Subspecies In A Trench Coat
  • “I Am The Allergen”: The Super-Rare Condition That Makes Everyone Else Allergic To You
  • 42,000-Year-Old Yellow Crayon Suggests Neanderthals Created Art – And It’s Still Sharp Too
  • IFLScience Investigates The Loch Ness Monster: A Round-Up Of Our Spooky Season Nessie Deep Dive
  • Why An Eastern Pacific Tear In Earth’s Crust Could Spare The Pacific Northwest… Eventually
  • JWST Reveals Never-Before-Seen Details Of The Red Spider Nebula And It’s Spectacular
  • “Breaking Records By Extraordinary Margins”: 22 Of Earth’s 34 Vital Signs At Record Levels
  • “The Most Important Unsolved Problem In Pure Math”: Where Is Humanity At With Prime Numbers?
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version