'Period Brain' Doesn't Exist, Says New Study
Many people (mostly men) believe that a menstruating woman is incapable of making decisions and should therefore not be taken seriously.
But a small new study has shown that to be faulty logic.
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki studied 88 menstruating women. They assessed each woman’s general competence — including visuospatial working memory, attention, and cognitive bias — against their hormone levels, at four different points during two menstrual cycles.
They found no correlation between women’s cognitive function and their hormone levels during menstruation.
There was a slight change in working memory in the first menstrual cycle. However, this didn’t occur in the second cycle, leading researches to believe that this was due to “random variation.” They concluded, “There is no consistent association between women’s hormone levels — in particular estrogen and progesterone — and attention, working memory, and cognitive bias.”
What that basically means is that there was no proof that menstruation turns a woman into an irrational person who can’t make sensible decisions.
“I think this research shows very clearly that women function very well despite having hormonal changes,” lead author Brigitte Leeners noted. “You cannot use hormonal changes as an excuse that there would be limitations in their performance.”
Take that, sexism.
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