Study, 2025
How can researchers better track hormone changes throughout the menstrual cycle?
Researchers created a new method called PACTS that better tracks how hormones change across your entire menstrual cycle, making patterns easier to spot and potentially improving diagnosis.
What they did
Researchers developed a new statistical method and software tool to track menstrual cycles as continuous timelines. They tested it using daily hormone measurements from 44 different cycles.
What they found
The new PACTS method better aligned hormone patterns (estradiol and progesterone) across different cycles and different people compared to traditional methods. This could help improve diagnosis of period-related conditions like PMDD, catamenial epilepsy, and menstrual migraine.
What it means for you
A better way to study hormones during your cycle could improve diagnosis of period-related health problems. The main limitation is this demonstrates a technical advance in research methods rather than proof that it improves diagnosis in actual patients.
44
menstrual cycles analyzed
About the study
- Original title
- How to study the menstrual cycle as a continuous variable: Implementing phase-aligned cycle time scaling (PACTS) with the menstrualcycleR package
- Authors
- Nagpal A, Schmalenberger KM, Barone JC et al.
- Journal
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Study
- What was tested
- A new statistical method for analyzing menstrual cycle data
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107584
Topics
Related studies
Systematic review, 2023
What hormonal treatments have been tested for PMDD, menstrual migraine, and catamenial epilepsy?
Study, 2025
Does a new way of tracking hormones in research align measurements better across different women?
Review, 2011
How do the hormones estrogen and progesterone affect the brain's activity, and could this explain PMS or PMDD?
Review, 2004
How should doctors diagnose and treat PMS and PMDD?
Review, 2003
How do menstrual cycle hormones affect the brain and cause mood disorders like PMDD?
Review, 2000
Do common diseases get worse before a woman's period?