Penton-Voak & Perrett (1999)3030 Penton-Voak IS, Perrett DI, Castles DL, et al. Menstrual cycle alters face preference. Nature. 1999;399(6738):741-2. PMID: 10391238; https://doi.org/10.1038/21557. https://doi.org/10.1038/21557...
|
United Kingdom |
139 women; mean age 20 years (menstrual, follicular and luteal phases) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Emotional attractiveness task (female and male face stimuli) |
Women showed greater facial attractiveness as facial stimuli in the follicular phase |
Penton-Voak et al. (1999)3030 Penton-Voak IS, Perrett DI, Castles DL, et al. Menstrual cycle alters face preference. Nature. 1999;399(6738):741-2. PMID: 10391238; https://doi.org/10.1038/21557. https://doi.org/10.1038/21557...
|
United Kingdom and Japan |
20 women; mean age 21 years (follicular phase and luteal phase) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Visual stimuli consisting of male faces |
Greater attractiveness to male faces of Caucasians in the follicular phase |
Roberts et al. (2004)4747 Roberts SC, Havlicek J, Flegr J, et al. Female facial attractiveness increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Proc Biol Sci. 2004;271Suppl 5(Suppl 5):S270-2. PMID: 15503991; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2004.0174. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2004.0174...
|
United Kingdom and Czech Republic |
130 men; 131 women; mean age 25 years |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Emotional attractiveness task (female face stimuli in the follicular and luteal phases) |
Women showed greater facial attractiveness in the menstrual cycle, and higher in the periovulatory than in the luteal phase |
Pearson & Lewis (2005)2626 Pearson R, Lewis MB. Fear recognition across the menstrual cycle. Horm Behav. 2005;47(3):267-71. PMID: 15708754; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2004.11.003. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2004.11....
|
United Kingdom |
50 women of mean age 20 years (12 in the menstrual phase; 13 in the preovulatory phase; 11 in the ovulatory phase; and 14 in the luteal phase) |
B |
NS |
Emotion recognition |
Emotion recognition task (Face Bank; Paul Ekman) |
Greater accuracy of the fear face in the menstrual phase |
Little, Jones, Burt & Perrett (2007)3636 Little AC, Jones BC, Burt DM, Perrett DI. Preferences for symmetry in faces change across the menstrual cycle. Biol Psychol. 2007;76(3):209-16. PMID: 17919806; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.08.003. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007...
|
United Kingdom |
31 women aged 20-25 years (in the follicular and luteal phases) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Male and female facial stimuli in 2D symmetry |
Greater facial attractiveness of symmetrical faces in the follicular phase |
Roney & Simmons (2008)2727 Roney JR, Simmons ZL. Women's estradiol predicts preference for facial cues of men's testosterone. Horm Behav. 2008;53(1):14-9. PMID: 17950291; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.09.008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2007.09....
|
United States |
43 women aged 18.36 ± 0.10 years (menstrual phases: follicular, mid-cycle and luteal phases) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Visual stimuli consisting of male faces |
Greater facial attractiveness of more masculine features in the late follicular phase |
Rubinow et al. (2007)1717 Rubinow DR, Smith MJ, Schenkel LA, Schmidt PJ, Dancer K. Facial emotion discrimination across the menstrual cycle in women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and controls. J Affect Disord. 2007;104(1-3):37-44. PMID: 17367867; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2007.01.031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2007.01.03...
|
United States |
28 women with PMDD (37.9 ± 5.0 years); 27 women without PMDD (33.5 ± 7.0); evaluated in both the follicular and the luteal phases |
B |
NS |
Emotion recognition |
Emotional discrimination task |
Better discrimination of sad face in the luteal phase for PMDD. Women with PMDD differed significantly from women without PMDD in the luteal phase regarding sad faces |
Derntl et al. (2008)3535 Derntl B, Windischberger C, Robinson S, et al. Facial emotion recognition and amygdala activation are associated with menstrual cycle phase. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2008;33(8):1031-40. PMID: 18675521; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.04.014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008....
|
Austria |
32 women aged 23.84 ± 3 years (15 in the follicular phase and 17 in the luteal phase) |
B |
NS |
Emotion recognition |
Emotional discrimination task (Vienna Emotion Recognition Tasks, VERT-K) |
Better performance in the follicular phase; greater confusion in discrimination of negative emotions (anger and disgust) in the luteal phase |
Guapo et al. (2009)3232 Guapo VG, Graeff FG, Zani ACT, et al. Effects of sex hormonal levels and phases of the menstrual cycle in the processing of emotional faces. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009;34(7):1087-94. PMID: 19297103; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.02.007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009....
|
Brazil |
30 women aged 22.1 ± 2.9 years (11 women in the follicular phase; 9 women in the ovulatory phase; and 10 women in the luteal phase); 10 healthy men |
B |
NS |
Emotion recognition |
Prototypes of emotional facial stimuli |
Recognition of negative emotions, such as sadness, anger and fear in the follicular phase |
Konishi et al. (2009)2929 Konishi K, Kumashiro M, Izumi H, Higuchi Y, Awa Y. Effects of the menstrual cycle on language and visual working memory: a pilot study. Ind Health. 2009;47(5):560-8. PMID: 19834266; https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.47.560. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.47.560...
|
Japan |
12 women in the menstrual, follicular and luteal phases; aged 22.4 ± 1.1 years |
B |
NS |
Visuospatial memory |
Visual memory task using the Baddely model |
Higher mental load performance in the luteal phase. |
Oberzaucher et al. (2012)4040 Oberzaucher E, Katina S, Schmehl S, Holzleitner I, Grammer K. The myth of hidden ovulation: Shape and texture changes in the face during the menstrual cycle. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology. 2012;10(4):163-75. https://doi.org/10.1556/JEP.10.2012.4.1. https://doi.org/10.1556/JEP.10.2012.4.1...
|
Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia |
10 women and 15 men; aged 23.35 ± 3.1 years) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Female facial stimuli in the ovulatory and luteal phases |
Greater facial attractiveness of female stimuli in the ovulatory phase. There was no difference regarding the other phases of the menstrual cycle |
Puts et al. (2013)1515 Puts DA, Bailey DH, Cárdenas RA, et al. Women's attractiveness changes with estradiol and progesterone across the ovulatory cycle. Horm Behav. 2013;63(1):13-9. PMID: 23159480; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2012.11.007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2012.11....
|
United States |
202 women aged 19.6 ± 1.6 years (late follicular and middle luteal phases) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Visual stimuli consisting of male faces |
Greater facial attractiveness of more masculine features in the late follicular phase (increased estradiol) |
Lobmaier, Bobst & Probst (2016)3838 Lobmaier JS, Bobst C, Probst F. Can women detect cues to ovulation in other women's faces? Biol Lett. 2016;12(1):20150638. PMID: 26814224; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0638. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0638...
|
Switzerland |
60 women aged 25.16 ± 5.1 years (2 evaluation phases: ovulatory and luteal) |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Facial stimuli prototypes |
Higher rate of facial recognition during the ovulatory phase |
Marcinkowska & Holzleitner (2020)3939 Marcinkowska UM, Holzleitner IJ. Stability of women's facial shape throughout the menstrual cycle. Proc Biol Sci. 2020;287(1924):20192910. PMID: 32259474; https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2910. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2910...
|
Poland |
102 women aged 28.8 ± 4.6 years |
B |
NS |
Facial attractiveness |
Female facial stimuli in the ovulatory and luteal phases |
Greater facial attractiveness of female stimuli in the ovulatory phase. There was no difference regarding facial symmetry and sexual dimorphism during the phases of the cycle |