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]
