Ovulation disturbances and mood across the menstrual cycles of healthy women

We examined the cyclicity of negative mood relative to ovulation and ovulation disturbances in Menstrual Cycle Diary(c) data collected daily during a 1-year study of ovulation, exercise, and bone change. A validated quantitative basal temperature-based methodology was used to determine the onset of the luteal phase. 'Feeling depressed', 'feeling anxious', and 'feeling angry/frustrated' were scored on a scale of 0 (absent) to 4 (very intense). Mood scores were examined over two 15-day intervals centered on either ovulation/midpoint, or on the onset of flow. Data were available from 765 cycles of 62 healthy and initially ovulatory women with a mean age of 33.9 +/- 5.4 years. Of 739 cycles that could be classified, 532 (72%) were normally ovulatory, 185 (25%) were ovulatory with a short (<10 day) luteal phase, and 22 (3%) were anovulatory. Minor cyclic mood changes were present in both ovulatory and anovulatory menstrual cycles. In anovulatory cycles, mood tended to be more variable but less negative, with a time course that differed from that in ovulatory cycles. Mood scores did not differ based on luteal phase length or with hormone levels. Patterns and mechanisms of mood change in very symptomatic women appear to be essentially amplifications of normal experiences.