Student Learning and the Menstrual Cycle: premenstrual symptoms and approaches to studying

Abstract

Women are often assumed to show variations in their intellectual performance through the menstrual cycle. A questionnaire survey of female students taking degrees in the human sciences showed that most attributed some disruption of their academic work to premenstrual symptoms. However, the available research evidence indicates that the process of menstruation has no effect at all on academic performance when measured by quantitative tests or examinations. An investigation was therefore conducted on female students’ approaches to studying during the normal menstrual cycle. There was no evidence of any variations in women's study orientations during the paramenstruum either in comparison with the same individuals’ orientations during the intermenstruum or in comparison with the orientations of male students.