Women's Abilities Vary by Menstrual Cycle Phase, Essay Argues
A 2019 essay by three French researchers argues that the menstrual cycle has three hormonal phases, likened to seasons, and abilities vary across them. The essay reports no new data. The authors also question whether hormonal contraception is fully safe.
Key Findings
The authors describe three phases: a waiting time called latency, a fertility time, and a time when a conceived child settles in the womb.
They describe three hormonal climates: no high estrogen or progesterone early in the cycle, high estrogen around ovulation, and estrogen plus progesterone after ovulation.
They note that a woman has more than 300 cycles in a lifetime while only a few are needed to pass on life. They suggest the persistence may favor the species.
They state that contraceptive hormones do not stand in for the body's own hormones, whose release they suppress.
They write that men's hormones have no seasons, and that testosterone peaks in the morning and dips by evening. They call the two patterns a beneficial complementarity.
Interpretation
The paper is a review article written as an essay. The authors say they mix scientific, educational and sometimes poetic language. The essay reports no participants, methods or new measurements. With no study design, it cannot establish that cycle phase changes abilities or that contraception causes harm. Many claims cite other studies, and the authors give no account of how they chose them. Statements about femininity, motherhood and the roles of men are the authors' philosophical views.
RRM Context
Restorative reproductive medicine treats the ovulatory cycle as a sign of health to observe and support. Cycle charting shows where a person is in it. The essay's caution about contraception cites two randomized trials, one on mood and one on sexual function. A cited 2018 paper reports that the cycle influences emotion with limited effect on cognition.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
We are seeing now a renewed interest in female physiology; particularly, in the female menstrual cycle. This desire has not been overridden, however, by the widespread use of hormonal contraception. Cycle monitoring applications for smart phones have now millions of users.
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