Menstrual synchrony-a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among girls living in a hostel

Abstract

Background: Menstrual synchrony is also known as the Mc Clintock effect when a person who attained menarche come in physical contact with another person who menstruates, the pheromones influence each other so that eventually, the monthly cycles lineup. To assess the synchrony (frequency of coincidence) of menstrual cycles among hostel girls.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 121 hostel girls in Tamil Nadu during February 2019. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data participant’s age, synchronization of the menstrual cycle, the experience of synchrony common among roommates /friends other than roommates, regularity of periods, number of days of bleeding, intake of pills to delay/regularize periods, coinciding symptoms during menses. The data collected was entered in Microsoft excel and analysed using SPSS version 16 software. The descriptive analysis was analysed using frequencies, mean, standard deviation and proportions.Results: Among 121 hostel girls, the mean (SD) age was 20.20 (1.31) years. The 86 (71.1%) girls get their menses during the same time. The 58.7% experience synchrony more common among roommates whereas 41.3% experience it with friends other than roommates.Conclusions: High proportion of the participants reported menstrual synchrony among them. Future research is needed to prove these hypotheses under the influence of pheromones. This paves the way to study the role of pheromones in other physiological mechanisms.