The Menstrual Cycle, Personality, and Academic Performance

Men's and Women's Beliefs about the Influence of the Menstrual Cycle on Academic Performance: A Preliminary Study1

“…Objective studies of academic performance, however, have failed to support the idea of a menstrual or premenstrual deficit. Although slight cyclical changes are usually observed, they d o not reach statistical significance (Bernstein, 1977;Sommer, 1972;Walsh et al, 1981). The only studies which concluded the opposite (Dalton, 1960(Dalton, , 1968) did not assess their results statistically and, hence, must be treated with caution.…”

Positive changes in the premenstrual period

“…Other reports that menstrual distress and its correlates vary cross-culturally (24) emphasize the importance of examining the social context in which the women learns about and experiences menstrual cycles. Most objective performance measures of cognitive (25,26) and perceptual motor behaviour (26) fail to demonstrate a effect related to the menstrual cycle, even though many women believe their peformances are negatively affected; this is further evidence of the false attribution of multiple changes to the premenstruum.…”

Standardization of Menstrual Cycle Data for the Analysis of Intensive Longitudinal Data

“…Firstly, although the timing of the ovulatory phase may differ on an individual basis, research shows the ovulatory phase typically occurs between days 13-16 of the menstrual cycle [11] suggesting there is little variability prior to the ovulatory phase. The second is that the premenstrual phase has been defined as occurring 5 days prior to menstrual bleeding [17]. Thus, it is the luteal phase, which precedes the menstrual phase, that is subject to variable lengths.…”