Ariel, July 7, 2022
Have you ever encountered this miraculous situation where you and your roommate, who initially had menstrual cycles at opposite ends of the month, suddenly find your periods syncing up almost at the same time?
Just like catching a cold, it seems menstruation can also be "contagious" among people! This phenomenon is often referred to as “menstrual synchrony.”
What exactly is menstrual synchrony? Is it influenced by proximity or close relationships affecting our hormonal secretion? And is this change good or bad?
Is Menstrual Synchrony Real?
The discussion about "menstrual synchrony" was officially introduced by an American psychologist named McClintock in a scientific publication in 1971.
In her article, McClintock detailed the experiments conducted to study menstrual synchrony and their results. The study involved 135 women living in college dorms, exploring the impact of close relationships on menstrual timing, finding that close friends did tend to synchronize their menstrual cycles. In 1998, McClintock further researched the reasons behind the increasing synchronization of menstrual timing, discovering that compounds extracted from women's armpits, potentially acting as pheromones, could affect the length of menstrual cycles.
McClintock's findings sparked widespread public discussion, with many scientists joining the conversation to conduct related research. However, attempts to replicate McClintock's experiment encountered many errors and inaccuracies, making it impossible to confirm her results as correct.
Similar experiments conducted by scientists, collecting menstrual cycle data from 186 Chinese women living in dorms for over a year, found no evidence of "menstrual synchrony." Moreover, another study conducted in Polish dormitories over five months once again confirmed that menstrual cycles between different individuals do not gradually synchronize.
Thus, the menstrual cycles of close friends living together do not tend to become more similar. So why do many of us notice that we and our best friends get our periods at the same time?
How to Explain the Coincidence of Menstrual Periods?
This could be described as a beautiful coincidence, a matter of chance. Since everyone's menstrual cycle is not entirely stable, factors like stress, diet, and sleep can cause our periods to shift earlier or later, with durations ranging from three to seven days. Therefore, it's inevitable for two people spending a long time together to occasionally have overlapping menstrual periods.
Moreover, people tend to remember beautiful coincidences vividly. When you're complaining about menstrual pain and lack of energy, and your friend suddenly hugs you saying, "What a coincidence! I got my period too! We really are best friends!" doesn't it feel like the discomfort of your period diminishes a bit? And when your periods do not coincide, you tend not to pay much attention to each other's cycles, allowing the brain to filter out those non-coincidental moments, making the few coincidences seem like "always."
Many people firmly believe in "menstrual synchrony" from their personal experiences, convinced of a special connection between people that makes our bonds closer. We understands everyone's longing for something wonderful but insists on a scientifically rigorous attitude to inform everyone that there is currently no scientific basis to support this phenomenon. Perhaps in the future, we can further explore the mysteries between people. Ariel Calmfident, like everyone else, looks forward to that day.
As for menstruation, it's a broadly similar yet individually complex physiological phenomenon. We should all pay attention to our menstrual health, using it to explore our physiological conditions further, thereby better managing our physical health.
