On Your Period? No More Shying Away from Multitasking!

Menstruating does not reduce the ability to think. The hormonal changes related to the menstrual cycle do not show any association with cognitive performance.

Periods don't make women incapable of multitasking. During menstruation, the hormonal levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone in your system have no impact on woman’s working memory, decision making, cognitive capacity or ability to pay attention to two things at the same time, reveals a study

While it has often been assumed that anyone who's menstruating isn't working at top mental pitch, the researchers found evidence to suggest that that's not the case. While some hormones were associated with changes across one cycle in some of the women taking part, these effects did not repeat in the following cycle.

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‘Menstrual Periods may not cause any changes to woman’s attention, working memory, decision making or cognitive bias.’

Overall, none of the hormones the team studied had any replicable, consistent effect on study participants' cognition. Lead researcher Brigitte Leeners said, "As a specialist in reproductive medicine and a psychotherapist, I deal with many women who have the impression that the menstrual cycle influences their well-being and cognitive performance."

The team, working from the Medical School Hannover and University Hospital Zürich, recruited 68 women to undergo detailed monitoring to investigate changes in three selected cognitive processes at different stages in the menstrual cycle.

The results from the first cycle suggested that cognitive bias and attention were affected and these results were not replicated in the second cycle. The team looked for differences in performance between individuals and changes in individuals' performance over time, and found none. Leeners added, "The hormonal changes related to the menstrual cycle do not show any association with cognitive performance.

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Although there might be individual exceptions, women's cognitive performance is in general not disturbed by hormonal changes occurring with the menstrual cycle." The research is published in Journal of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

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Source-ANI

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