Effects of menstrual cycle phase or monophasic oral contraceptive use on body temperature, mood and somatic symptoms, and utility of different self-monitoring methods

Abstract: More research is needed to investigate the hormonal differences and the effects they may have on females, with or without oral contraceptive use, in order to help increase our understanding of female physiology and to help create female specific guidelines for research and practical settings. PURPOSE: To investigate if the menstrual cycle or monophasic oral contraceptive (OC) use influences body temperature, mood or somatic symptoms and to assess menstrual cycle self-monitoring methods in at home settings. METHOD: 4 eumenorrheic females and 6 monophasic OC users tracked their menstrual cycle over 2-3 months using basal body temperature (BBT), urinary luteinising hormone detection kits and self-report logs. They also completed several questionnaires throughout each cycle. RESULTS: Non-OC users: we failed to find statistically significant differences across the menstrual cycle in eumenorrheic females. Analysis revealed a main effect of menstrual cycle phase for pain, although post-hoc analysis did not identify any specific phase difference. A large effect size (Cohen's d - 0.88) was however observed for the difference between means of premenstrual and early follicular phases (Mean ± standard deviation (SD): premenstrual 9.5 ± 3.2 vs early follicular 12.7 ± 4.4; participants scored their results on a 6- point Likert scale according to severity of experience, with higher values indicating greater severity). OC users: unsurprisingly, we failed to find significant differences for the majority of parameters measured for OC users. There was a significant difference found between means of behavioural change between the start and end of withdrawal week (Mean ± SD: start of withdrawal week 6.8 ± 2.0 vs. end of withdrawal week 6.3 ± 2.0, P = 0.001; scores recorded on a 6-point Likert scale according to severity of experience, with higher values indicating greater severity). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that body temperature, mood and somatic symptoms were not different across the menstrual cycle for eumenorrheic females. Similar results were seen in monophasic oral contraceptive users. At home luteinizing hormone detection kits and basal body temperature recordings were simple and easy to carry out at home. The BBT recordings, however, were not successful in displaying temperature changes throughout the menstrual cycle in eumenorrheic females.