Effect of hormonal changes during menstrual cycle on measures of differential sensitivity: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundCyclic fluctuation levels of hormones in females during different phases of menstruation can lead to many favorable and unfavorable changes. Different researchers had investigated these changes and suggested that such hormonal fluctuations may lead to alterations in auditory functions indirectly. The evidence from different studies suggested variations in thresholds of female participants between pre-menstruation and post menstruation stages. However, to our best knowledge, no attempts have been made to assess the differential sensitivity in females across the four phases of the menstrual cycle. The present study aims to investigate these variations in the auditory system across the four phases of menstruation.Methods and materialsThe participants were 27 volunteers with the age range of 18–30 years, consisting of 12 females (experimental group) and 15 males (control group). Three psychoacoustics measures, i.e., differential limen of intensity (DLI), differential limen of frequency (DLF), and differential limen of time (DLT), to assess the differential sensitivity were performed to analyze any audiological changes that may occur during each menstrual cycle phase.ResultsThe results of the study showed that the scores were significantly poorer (p < 0.05) in the menstrual phase compared to other phases for all the tests in females. The scores were significantly better (p > 0.05) at the premenstrual phase for all the tests in females. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in scores across the phases for all the tests in males. The results of the study agree with previous studies which also report the effect of hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle in various audiological tests.ConclusionThe results of the current study support to the theory that changes in sex hormone levels at different phases of menstrual cycle can affect differential sensitivity.