Study, 1994
Do your mood and physical symptoms stay the same from one menstrual cycle to the next?
Your physical symptoms tend to be more stable across cycles than your emotions do. This suggests your premenstrual experience can be quite different from month to month.
What they did
109 women kept daily diaries of mood and physical well-being for two consecutive menstrual cycles. Researchers compared how similar their experiences were between the two cycles.
What they found
Physical symptoms were much more consistent across cycles than emotional symptoms. For women using nonsteroidal contraceptives, emotional symptoms in the second cycle matched only 5.4% of the first cycle's pattern, compared to 15% for physical symptoms. For women using oral contraceptives, emotional consistency was 7.8% versus 22% for physical consistency.
What it means for you
What you experience premenstrually might be different from one cycle to the next, especially emotionally. The study doesn't explain why this happens or whether these variations are purely biological.
5.4%
emotional consistency between cycles (nonsteroidal contraceptive users)
22%
physical consistency between cycles (oral contraceptive users)
109
women followed
About the study
- Original title
- Mood and Well-Being in Consecutive Menstrual Cycles
- Authors
- Anne E. Walker
- Journal
- Psychology of Women Quarterly
- Year
- 1994
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 109
- What was tested
- None (observational)
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00455.x
Topics
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