Women's menstrual cycles don't change the way our brains perform

Australian-led research has found no evidence to support the myth that women’s cognitive abilities change across the menstrual cycle. The researchers looked at 102 studies covering close to 4000 women and looked at changes in everything from attention, intelligence and executive functioning to motor function, spatial ability, verbal ability and creativity. The authors say although menstruation is often treated like a disease that impairs women’s ability to function, they found no evidence for significant changes in cognitive performance across the cycle. The authors say that while this is somewhat surprising given the physiological changes that occur across the menstrual cycle, the changes to the brain are either small enough that they don't influence performance or women compensate for these changes in ways we don't yet understand.