---
title: Do healthy women without PMDD have mood changes during their menstrual cycle?
description: Yes, but the changes are small. Healthy women without PMDD showed small increases in anxiety, depression, and other negative mood symptoms from late follicula
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/patterns-of-mood-changes-throughout-the-reproductive-cycle-in-healthy-women-2008/
---

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- Do healthy women without PMDD have mood changes during their menstrual cycle?

Survey study, 2008

# Do healthy women without PMDD have mood changes during their menstrual cycle?

Yes, but the changes are small. Healthy women without PMDD showed small increases in anxiety, depression, and other negative mood symptoms from late follicular to late luteal phase.

 Early or limited evidence

63 psychiatrically healthy women without PMDD, normal menstrual cycles, not using hormonal contraceptives

## What they did

63 healthy women without PMDD completed daily symptom tracking for 3 cycles and mood questionnaires. Women were grouped by whether they had at least 66% increase in physical symptoms from late follicular to late luteal phase.

## What they found

Significant increases in state anxiety, anxiety, somatization, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, interpersonal sensitivity, and total distress from late follicular to late luteal phase. The increase in somatization and depression was larger in women with luteal phase physical symptoms. However, the actual magnitude of these increases was small and may not have direct clinical significance.

## What it means for you

Even healthy women without PMDD experience small increases in anxiety and depression symptoms before their period, especially if they have premenstrual physical symptoms. However, the actual size of mood changes is small and may not matter much in everyday life. The main limitation is that this only studied healthy women without PMDD.

63

healthy women without PMDD

3

menstrual cycles tracked

66%

symptom increase threshold for LPPS group

## About the study

Original title Patterns of mood changes throughout the reproductive cycle in healthy women without premenstrual dysphoric disorders Authors Gonda X, Telek T, Juhász G et al. Journal Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry Year 2008 Study design Survey study What was tested None (observational) Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.07.016](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.07.016)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pmdd/)[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Low mood and depression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-depression-mood/)[Anxiety and tension](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-anxiety/)[Oral contraceptives and drospirenone](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-hormonal-contraceptives/)[Anxiety disorders and OCD](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-anxiety-disorders/)[Work and productivity](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-work/)[Relationships and partners](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-relationships/)

Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits.

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## Related studies

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