---
title: Does a new way of tracking hormones in research align measurements better across different women?
description: Yes. The new PACTS method improves how well researchers can align estrogen measurements during the first part of the menstrual cycle, though it works similarl
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/studying-the-menstrual-cycle-as-a-continuous-variable-implementing-phase-aligned-2025/
---

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- Does a new way of tracking hormones in research align measurements better across different women?

Study, 2025

# Does a new way of tracking hormones in research align measurements better across different women?

Yes. The new PACTS method improves how well researchers can align estrogen measurements during the first part of the menstrual cycle, though it works similarly to traditional methods for progesterone during the second part.

 Early or limited evidence

Daily hormone measurements from 44 menstrual cycles

## What they did

Created a new method called PACTS to track when hormones rise and fall during the menstrual cycle. Tested it using daily hormone measurements from 44 menstrual cycles and compared results to traditional counting methods.

## What they found

PACTS better aligns estrogen measurements, especially during the early part of the cycle when hormone timing varies most between women. It works similarly to traditional methods for tracking progesterone during the later part of the cycle.

## What it means for you

This new method could help future researchers study PMDD and other menstrual cycle conditions more accurately. The main limitation is it was tested on only 44 cycles from an unspecified number of women.

44

menstrual cycles studied

## About the study

Original title Studying the Menstrual Cycle as a Continuous Variable: Implementing Phase-Aligned Cycle Time Scaling (PACTS) with the `menstrualcycleR` package Authors Anisha Nagpal, Katja Maria Schmalenberger, Jordan Barone et al. Year 2025 Study design Study What was tested PACTS method Read the paper [doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hd5xw_v1](https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/hd5xw_v1)

## Topics

[Epilepsy](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-epilepsy/)[Migraine](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-migraine/)[Reproductive hormone sensitivity](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-hormone-sensitivity/)[Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pmdd/)

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