26 Mar 2 ways your hormones boost your brain skills
BY GABRIELLE LICHTERMAN
- The hormones in your menstrual cycle improve your brainstorming skills and ability to concentrate, studies show.
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March 26, 2022—Did you know the hormones in your menstrual cycle actually improve the way your brain functions on certain cycle days? It’s true! Here are more reasons to love your hormones:
Throughout your Week 2 (the week leading up to and including ovulation), it’s easier for you to brainstorm lots of brilliant ideas. That’s because spiking estrogen on these cycle days gives you more mental energy, helping you think up more possibilities. On top of this, when estrogen is this high, it makes you more willing to experiment with unconventional concepts without criticizing them, so you’re brimming with innovative thoughts!
Throughout your Week 3 (the 8 days following ovulation), your ability to concentrate on fine details improves. Credit goes to the sedating effect of rising progesterone on these cycle days. This hormone calms your brain, helping you pay closer attention to facts and figures.
What this means for you
If you have tasks the require an extra dose of creativity or concentration, try to sync them with the phases in your menstrual cycle when these brain skills peak. While you can tackle brainstorming and maintain focus on any day in your cycle, you’ll find them even easier with hormonal help!
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Did you know the hormones in your menstrual cycle actually boost your brain skills? Learn more: MyHormonology.com/hormones-brain-skills
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SOURCES:
(1) Rosemarie Krug, et al., “Jealousy, general creativity, and coping with social frustration during the menstrual cycle,” Archives of Sexual Behavior, 25 (1996): 181-199
Rosemarie Krug, et al., “Effects of menstrual cycle on creativity,” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 19 (1994): 21-31
(2) Silvia Solís-Ortiz, María Corsi-Cabrera, “Sustained attention is favored by progesterone during early luteal phase and visuo-spatial memory by estrogens during ovulatory phase in young women,” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 33 (2008): 989-998
Silvia Solís-Ortiz, Miguel Ángel Guevara, María Corsi-Cabrera, “Performance in a test demanding prefrontal functions is favored by early luteal phase progesterone: an electroencephalographic study,” Psychoneuroendocrinology, 29 (2004): 1047-1057
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