Survey study, 2025
Do women with PMS have thinking problems that change with the menstrual cycle or persist all month?
Women with PMS had lasting problems with working memory and impulse control across the entire menstrual cycle, not just before their period. These problems correlated with symptom severity but not with hormone levels.
What they did
Cross-sectional study of 105 women aged 19-35, with 54 having PMS or PMDD and 51 as controls. Women were tested three times across their menstrual cycle (mid-follicular, mid-luteal, and late luteal phases) using computerized tasks to measure working memory and impulse control. Hormone levels were measured from saliva samples, and menstrual symptoms were tracked across two cycles.
What they found
Women with PMS/PMDD showed working memory deficits under high cognitive load across all cycle phases. They also had longer stop signal reaction times (slower impulse control) across all cycle phases, and these reaction times correlated with premenstrual symptom severity. There was no significant correlation between cognitive performance and gonadal hormone levels.
What it means for you
Thinking problems in PMS may not be caused by hormone fluctuations but may be a lasting trait of the condition that affects the entire month. This could help explain why women with PMS have difficulty managing emotions and behavior. The study tested only two types of thinking skills.
105
Women tested
54
With PMS or PMDD
3
Menstrual cycle phases tested
About the study
- Original title
- Persistent Impairment of Executive Functions in Premenstrual Syndrome: Cause or Effect?
- Authors
- Gnaiger AM, Werlein P, Gruschwitz P et al.
- Journal
- PsyArXiv
- Year
- 2025
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 105
- What was tested
- None
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/3g9su_v1
Topics
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