---
title: Do women with PMS process emotions differently? | Niyora
description: Yes. Women with PMS are slower to respond to emotional pictures and faces during their premenstrual phase, compared to women without PMS.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/emotional-interference-and-attentional-processing-in-premenstrual-syndrome-2017/
---

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- Do women with PMS process emotions differently?

Lab study, 2017

# Do women with PMS process emotions differently?

Yes. Women with PMS are slower to respond to emotional pictures and faces during their premenstrual phase, compared to women without PMS.

 Moderate study design

55 women with confirmed PMS and 55 control women without PMS.

## What they did

They recruited 55 women with confirmed PMS and 55 women without, identified through screening and two months of daily records. All completed attention tasks during their follicular and premenstrual phases. The tasks showed words, pictures, and faces and measured how quickly women could respond when emotional content was distracting.

## What they found

Women with PMS showed greater difficulty (slower response) to emotional pictures and faces during their premenstrual phase compared to the control group. With faces, they also showed an unexpected faster response in one specific test. No difference was found for word-based tasks. The differences were mainly in the premenstrual phase, not the follicular phase.

## What it means for you

Women with PMS may process emotions and faces differently during their premenstrual phase. This suggests PMS affects emotional signal handling. The study used symptom records rather than hormone testing to identify cycle phases, limiting causal conclusions. Sample size was moderate.

55

Women with PMS

55

Control women

## About the study

Original title Emotional interference and attentional processing in premenstrual syndrome Authors Eggert L, Kleinstäuber M, Hiller W et al. Journal Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry Year 2017 Study design Lab study Participants 55 What was tested Emotional attention tasks using words, pictures, and faces. Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.07.002](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.07.002)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/)[ADHD](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-adhd/)

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