Relationship between variations in estradiol and progesterone levels across the menstrual cycle and human performance

Rationale: Studies about whether or not the cognitive performance of women is influenced by changes in levels of sex steroid hormones across the menst rual cycle have produced ambiguous results. Objectives: This study tested w hether flight simulator performance differs significantly between the menst rual and the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Methods: In a within-subj ects design, 24 female pilots were tested twice during their menstrual cycl e: once during the menstrual and once during the luteal phase. On both test days they performed a 75-min simulator flight in a Frasca 141, a popular p ilot training device. Results: Despite highly significant differences in es tradiol (E-2) as well as progesterone (P) levels on the 2 test days, and de spite excluding subjects with anovulatory cycles from the analyses, there w ere no significant differences in overall flight performance between the me nstrual and luteal phases. We found no significant correlations between E-2 or P levels and flight performance. Conclusions: We found no evidence that the tested menstrual cycle phases and their associated E-2 and P levels si gnificantly influence flight simulator performance. We consider these negat ive findings based on 24 subjects meaningful because previous studies on th e influence of menstrual cycle on cognitive performance have not involved c omplex "real world" tasks such as piloting an aircraft and they obtained in consistent results.