Review, 2021
How does the menstrual cycle affect anxiety and PTSD symptoms?
The menstrual cycle and its hormones affect anxiety and PTSD symptoms. The clearest finding is premenstrual worsening of anxiety, and estradiol may help with trauma memory processing.
What they did
This review examined recent research on how menstrual cycle phases affect anxiety and PTSD, including the hormones involved and the biological processes behind these effects.
What they found
The menstrual cycle and its hormones affect symptom expression in women with anxiety and PTSD. The most consistent findings are premenstrual worsening of anxiety symptoms and a protective effect of estradiol on recall of extinction learning among healthy women. Many other findings conflict with each other.
What it means for you
The menstrual cycle affects anxiety and PTSD symptoms. We need better studies to understand exactly how. Main limitation: existing studies measure menstrual cycle phase poorly, making results hard to compare.
About the study
- Original title
- The Impact of the Menstrual Cycle and Underlying Hormones in Anxiety and PTSD: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?
- Authors
- Nillni YI, Rasmusson AM, Paul EL et al.
- Journal
- Current psychiatry reports
- Year
- 2021
- Study design
- Review
- What was tested
- None
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1007/s11920-020-01221-9
Topics
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