Being on your period doesn’t affect your cognitive skills

Verbal and spatial skills, like word memorisation and navigation, remain consistent throughout a person’s menstrual cycle, suggesting menstruation has little effect on these cognitive functions.

Previous research has suggested that the menstrual cycle may affect cognition due to hormonal fluctuations. For instance, studies have shown brain regions critical for spatial processing and memory change in size as the concentration of certain hormones ebbs and flows.

To investigate further, Belinda Pletzer at the University of Salzburg in Austria and her colleagues…