Activational effects of estrogen on cognitive performance in women during different phases of menses

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of sex hormones on non-reproductive behavior and cognitive abilities in younger women. The current project included the examination of the effects of estrogen on cognitive performance during the midluteal and menses phase of menstruation. Specifically, we (a) examined whether oral contraceptives affect cognitive performance and depressive symptomology during these two phases (b) examined whether differences in performance levels occur between women who use oral contraceptives and women who take a natural course of menstruation, and (c) whether other cognitive functions, such as memory, information processing, and mood are affected by estrogen during both phases of menses. The researchers used a repeated measures design to test younger women (n=6 women who used some form of hormonal influence, n=31 women who do not use any method of hormonal influence) with a normal functioning menstrual cycle (28-32 days) using Vandenberg's Mental Rotation Task, the Stroop, the Stress Arousal Checklist, the California Verbal Learning Test, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale during both phases of menstruation. A multivariate analyses of variance was conducted and showed a main effect in assessment measures, however we found no main effect in phase or the interaction of assessment and phase. A paired samples t-test showed a marginally significant result with the stress arousal checklist, specifically negative arousal. This study seems to imply that neither the phase of estrogen in women, nor the level of estrogen can be directly linked to cognitive performance.