---
title: Do suicide attempts happen more often at certain times of the menstrual cycle?
description: A review pooling data from five studies with 400 women found fewer suicide attempts in the third week of the cycle, suggesting hormones may influence suicide
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/suicide-and-the-menstrual-cycle-1990/
---

- [Niyora](https://niyora.com/)
- [Research](https://niyora.com/research/)
- [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/)
- Do suicide attempts happen more often at certain times of the menstrual cycle?

Review, 1990

# Do suicide attempts happen more often at certain times of the menstrual cycle?

A review pooling data from five studies with 400 women found fewer suicide attempts in the third week of the cycle, suggesting hormones may influence suicide risk.

 Moderate study design

400 menstruating women from five combined studies

## What they did

Review of studies examining whether suicide attempts vary across the menstrual cycle. Five studies with sufficient detail were identified and their data were combined together.

## What they found

A deficit in suicide attempts during week three of the menstrual cycle was revealed, which the authors suggest supports a hormonal explanation for why attempts vary across the cycle.

## What it means for you

This pattern across multiple studies suggests hormones may protect against suicide attempts during the third week. However, with only five studies included, more research is needed to understand this finding.

400

menstruating women pooled

5

studies combined

week three

fewer suicide attempts

## About the study

Original title Suicide and the menstrual cycle Authors Lester D Journal Medical hypotheses Year 1990 Study design Review What was tested None - review and pooled analysis Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/0306-9877(90)90092-s](https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-9877(90)90092-s)

## Topics

[Suicidality](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-suicidality/)

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

Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor.

Ask AI about this page

Copy prompt

ChatGPT

↗

Claude

↗

Perplexity

↗

Google AI Mode

↗

Grok

↗