Bad news for men who have feminine-looking features, like a soft jawline, big eyes and thin eyebrows (this means you Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jude Law). Turns out, women with partners who have softer facial characteristics are more likely to fantasize about masculine-looking men during Week 2 of their cycle (which starts 8 days after the first day of your period) than women attached to burly-looking dudes, reveals a just-released study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. Why? High estrogen is pushing you to find a mate with a high testosterone level—which is a key indicator of health and virility—to fertilize your egg during ovulation, which occurs at the end of Week 2. And a strong jawline, small eyes and thick eyebrows are all indicators of a high amount of this hormone!

Have you noticed that at certain times of the month your thoughts flit from one subject to another, making it difficult to focus on one topic at a time? You were probably in the second week your cycle! That’s the news from researchers at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, whose just-released study published in the journal Brain and Cognition shows that peaking levels of estrogen—which occurs during Week 2 of your cycle—makes it harder to concentrate and absorb new information.

So, what can you do to sharpen your focus during your high-estrogen days? Try practicing mindfulness meditation! This easy technique, which involves sitting still with your back straight while gently focusing on your breath, has been shown in study after study to boost the ability to concentrate on any day of your cycle. To try a guided mindfulness meditation now, visit UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

[photo: Sarah G...]

You can leave your makeup at home during Week 2 of your cycle—high estrogen is triggering changes in your face that make you appear naturally more beautiful to both men and women, according to a study in  the journal Biology Letters.

To test this, researchers showed male and female study participants pairs of photos of women in neutral, non-smiling poses without makeup—one photo was taken between Days 8 and 14 of the women’s cycles (when estrogen is high), the other photo was taken between Days 17 and 25 (when estrogen is lower and progesterone is high). None of the study participants were aware that the photos were taken at different phases of the women’ s cycles. Yet, when asked to rate the attractiveness of the women’s faces, most participants chose the photos taken during Days 8 and 14. 

You can thank evolution for the hormonal make-over, the researchers say.  As you approach ovulation at the end of Week 2, estrogen prompts subtle changes in your body that help you attract a mate.

[photo: Mercedes.. Life as I Pictured]

Need to put together a bookshelf, remember where the Home Depot is located or read a map? You’ll excel at these and other tasks that require you to use spatial skills—the ability to picture objects or patterns, then move them around in your head—during Week 1 of your cycle, the week of your period, according to researchers from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany. In their study, women did best on mental rotation tests when they had their period and did worse during their mid-cycle when estrogen was high. Why? Testosterone is the hormone that enables the brain to think abstractly, yet rising estrogen dampens that ability. When estrogen is bottomed-out during Week 1, testosterone is allowed to work without being hampered by estrogen, the researchers explain.

[photo: Kai Hendry]

Have a high-pitched voice? Chances are, you prefer masculine men with deeper voices over guys who use mid-range or higher notes when they speak, say researchers from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In their recent study, women with the highest-pitched voices who listened to recordings of men saying “I really like you” or “I really don’t like you” were 20% more likely to believe the men with the deeper voices were probably attractive regardless of what they were saying than women with lower-pitched voices.

The link? Researchers point a finger squarely at your hormones. A high-pitched voice in women is an indicator of a high estrogen level and a deep-pitched voice in men is an indicator of a high testosterone level, which is a common romantic pairing since these high hormones are key indicators of fertility and health, raising the chances of having lots of offspring.

Voices are also a key indicator of personality, with high voices in women suggesting traditionally feminine traits—such as agreeableness, empathy and cooperation—and low voices in men suggesting traditionally masculine traits—such as a dominant personality and competetiveness (picture the stereotype of the cheerleader and the football player). Women and men with mid-range voices and, therefore, hormones (like me and my husband) meet somewhere in the middle personality-wise.

But, this doesn’t mean women like me aren’t affected by a throaty male voice. Fact is, at mid-cycle during ovulation when estrogen is highest, most women find deeper tones hard to resist, past research shows.

[photo: CarbonNYC]