Review, 2025
How do hormone changes across the menstrual cycle affect mood and behavior in psychiatric disorders?
This review proposes that fluctuations in estradiol and progesterone trigger different patterns of mood and behavior problems at different cycle phases through different biological mechanisms. Understanding individual differences in hormone sensitivity could help develop more precise treatments.
What they did
This is a narrative review examining prospective and experimental evidence to propose a new framework called DASH-MC that explains how ovarian steroid hormones influence psychiatric symptoms across the menstrual cycle.
What they found
The review identifies three main patterns: (1) irritability and hyperarousal from sensitivity to estradiol or progesterone surges during the luteal phase; (2) low mood and cognitive problems from sensitivity to low or falling estradiol around menstruation; and (3) risky reward-seeking from sensitivity to estradiol surges around ovulation. While PMDD shows these patterns most clearly, similar cyclical symptoms occur in larger proportions of people with ongoing psychiatric disorders.
What it means for you
Hormone sensitivity may be important across many psychiatric disorders, not just menstrual disorders, and individual differences in how people respond to hormones matter. This framework could lead to more personalized treatment based on a person's specific hormone sensitivity pattern. This is a proposed framework not yet proven, so it is exploratory.
3
main patterns of hormone sensitivity identified
About the study
- Original title
- Dimensional Affective Sensitivity to Hormones across the Menstrual Cycle (DASH-MC): A transdiagnostic framework for ovarian steroid influences on psychopathology
- Authors
- Peters JR, Schmalenberger KM, Eng AG et al.
- Journal
- Molecular psychiatry
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Review
- What was tested
- None; conceptual review
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02693-4
Topics
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