Women may feel worse during their time of the month, but their minds are sharper according to new research.
Researchers from London found women reacted 12 per cent quicker and made 25 per cent fewer errors during menstruation on psychological tests.
This was despite the women saying they expected their performance would suffer.
The study, in journal Neuropsychologia, found women showed ‘better overall cognitive scores during menstruation, even though they reported poorer mood and symptoms’.
The scientists say the findings may provide an explanation for previous research that women athletes are less likely to get injured when they are menstruating.
A study found women reacted 12 per cent quicker and made 25 per cent fewer errors during menstruation on psychological tests. This was despite the women saying they expected their performance would suffer
They say oestrogen — the hormone which increases during menstruation in women — may be boosting brain function, while progesterone the hormone which kicks in before mesntruation, inhibits it.
The study looked at 248 participants — all in their early 30s and mid 20s, including 105 women, of whom 47 were on contraception, and 96 men.
The researchers set tricky screen-based tests aimed at mimicking mental processes typical in team sports.
They included pressing buttons only when they saw a correct signal, and measuring their timing by pressing a button exactly when two balls collide.
They also had to identify mirror images of rotating shapes in three dimensions — a test measuring spatial awareness.
Women menstruating were on average 10 milliseconds (12 per cent) more accurate in the moving balls task, and pressed the space bar at the wrong time 25 per cent less in the inhibition task.
The researchers found menstruating women had slower reaction times of around 10-20 milliseconds during the luteal phase, which begins after ovulation and lasts between 12-14 days up to the beginning of menstruation. They did not make any more errors during this phase.
Dr Flaminia Ronca, of UCL, the study’s first author said there was no performance differences at the group level between males and females.
The only differences in performance found was the fluctuation within the group of women who were menstruating.
She said her research suggests females suffer injuries before they begin menstruating because of hormones affecting their brains rather than their muscles.
She said: ‘What is surprising is that the participant’s performance was better when they were on their period, which challenges what women, and perhaps society more generally, assume about their abilities at this particular time of the month.
‘I hope that this will provide the basis for positive conversations between coaches and athletes about perceptions and performance: how we feel doesn’t always reflect how we perform.’
The authors say the fluctuation in timing — even by just 10 milliseconds — could be the difference between an injury or not.
Source: Mail Online
