Sex Drive and Your Menstrual Cycle: What 26,000 Diary Entries Actually Show
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Sex drive and menstrual cycle timing are connected, and the connection is real, small and loose. The largest preregistered study of the question collected 26,680 diary days from 1,054 women, 429 of them naturally cycling, and found desire rising around ovulation: desire for a partner, desire for other people, and how desirable the women felt. Several other predictions in that same paper found nothing. Daily-hormone studies point at progesterone for the fall that follows, through the two weeks before a period. None of this supports a schedule you can set your calendar by. The size of the shift varies enormously between women, plenty report their strongest week in the days before bleeding, and a drive that is flat every week is not a cycle story at all.
- The mid-cycle rise survived a large preregistered test: 26,680 diary days from 1,054 women, 429 naturally cycling, with higher in-pair desire, extra-pair desire and self-perceived desirability around ovulation. The same paper found no effect on clothing choices, mate retention or narcissism, and its authors call the replicability of the older literature mixed. Its figures carry a published correction; the corrected ones are used here.
- Progesterone tracks the fall into the luteal phase. In daily saliva sampling, estradiol was positive and progesterone negative for day-to-day desire. These are within-woman correlations in small observational samples, so they prove no mechanism.
- Between women the pattern is inconsistent. In a survey of 585 women aged 18 to 40, increases were somewhat more common in the ovulatory phase, with a high degree of variability in which phase each woman named.
- The classic model fits some women and not others. In a one-month diary of 148 cisgender women, partnered sexual contact did not rise in the higher-fertility phase, and 14 mid-cycle days of salivary hormones showed no association with sexual motivation.
- PMS alone did not lower sexual-function scores in one cross-sectional comparison, though the luteal phase itself was associated with worse scores in everyone. For PMDD the evidence is thin and comes from a narrative review. On an SSRI for premenstrual symptoms, pooled odds of sexual dysfunction or decreased libido were 2.32 (95% CI 1.57 to 3.42; 14 studies, 2,781 women, moderate certainty, 68% pharmaceutical-funded).
Figures from Arslan et al. 2021 (PMID 30148371), Roney and Simmons 2016 (PMID 27049465) and Jespersen et al. 2024 (PMID 39140320). The first two are observational; the third is a Cochrane review in which 68% of included studies were pharmaceutical-funded.
"Is it the calendar or is it me?"
Type the question into a search bar and a confident chart comes back: a neat arc peaking on day 14, a trough in the week before your period, a plan built on top of it. The research is quieter. The mid-cycle rise is real and survived the most careful test anyone has run, and it is one input among several.
The general version of this lives in why sex drive comes and goes, which covers month-to-month fluctuation across every cause. This page is its cycle chapter, at length. If your desire only arrives after things are already happening, responsive and spontaneous desire is the better place to start.
What 26,680 diary days found
Arslan and colleagues set out to test the older cycle literature properly. Earlier work had been criticised for small samples, weak designs and undisclosed flexibility in the analysis, so this team preregistered the hypotheses and analysis plan, then collected more than 26,000 usable online diary self-reports from 1,054 women, 429 of them naturally cycling. The fertile period was inferred from menstrual onset reports, and women on hormonal contraception served as a quasi-control group.
Three things came out clearly. Around the fertile window, extra-pair desire and behaviour rose, in-pair desire rose, and self-perceived desirability rose.
Four predictions failed. No ovulatory effect on partner mate-retention behaviour, none on clothing choices, none on narcissism, and a partner's sexual attractiveness did not moderate the shift, contradicting a chunk of the earlier work. The authors' summary is that the replicability of the existing literature was mixed, and they name the differences between women in the size of these changes as the thing worth studying next.
One housekeeping point. The paper carries a correction notice: the participant count should have been 1,054, the naturally cycling subsample 429, the diary-day count 26,680. Those corrected figures are the ones used here.
The fall into the luteal phase has a name
The rise is half a cycle. The drop that follows has the clearest hormone story behind it.
Roney and Simmons collected daily saliva across one to two menstrual cycles, assayed it for estradiol, progesterone and testosterone, and took daily diary reports alongside. Day-to-day desire showed positive effects of estradiol and negative effects of progesterone. Desire peaked mid-cycle, and measured progesterone concentrations statistically mediated the fall from mid-cycle into the luteal phase. Testosterone showed no significant effects once the other two were accounted for, which is worth knowing given how often testosterone gets named as the desire hormone.
Jones and colleagues found the same in a separate longitudinal sample of 375 women: within-woman changes in general sexual desire were negatively related to progesterone, and unrelated to testosterone or cortisol. Estradiol showed some positive relationships, generally significant only for solitary desire. Desire for uncommitted relationships tracked hormonal status not at all.
Two research groups, two samples, one hormone pointing the same way. That is about as much agreement as this field offers.
Ovulation, and who actually shows the peak
Searches for ovulation sex drive assume the peak is universal. Two older studies show where it concentrates.
Pillsworth and colleagues studied 173 women not taking oral contraceptives. An ovulatory peak in desire appeared only among women in committed relationships; among the unpartnered, conception probability and desire were uncorrelated. Within the partnered group, higher conception probability went with higher in-pair desire, and relationship length interacted with it to predict desire for people outside the relationship.
Caruso and colleagues analysed 1,180 women aged 18 to 40 in a cohort running from 2004 to 2011, of whom 925 had a partner and 255 were single. Ovulation was confirmed by ultrasound, one of the few datasets where the timing is not a guess. They counted activity, and the split ran the opposite way: single women's activity was higher during the ovulatory phase and lower during menses than the partnered women's, while partnered women had more sex at the weekend. The authors conclude that a variety of nonhormonal factors can have a role in partnered women.
Desire and behaviour are different outcomes, and a partner is a scheduling variable as much as a hormonal one.
Roney and Simmons also tested an earlier claim that desire for a woman's own partner runs on different hormonal signals from desire for other men. In their partnered subset, progesterone fluctuations were negatively correlated with both, and both were elevated in the fertile window and lowest in the luteal phase.
Your cycle, week by week, in the evidence
Single women's activity was lower during menses than partnered women's. Caveat: that study counted activity, which moves for non-hormonal reasons too.
Desire climbs through the follicular phase. Caveat: no combination of hormone measures mediated that rise. Nobody has explained it.
The replicated peak, in the preregistered diary study and the 2004 sample. Caveat: the diary study inferred the fertile period from menstrual onset, and the 2004 peak was partnered women only.
Desire lowest, progesterone highest, across three samples. Caveat: all three are observational and small, and mediation here is statistical, never a proven mechanism.
Built from PMID 24344697, 23601091, 30148371, 15216424, 27049465 and 29287282. Every card is a group average.
Why your pattern may look nothing like hers
Kiesner and colleagues asked 585 women aged 18 to 40 whether they notice changes across the cycle in desire and in how often they have sex, and if so in which phase the increase falls. Increases in desire were somewhat more common during the ovulatory phase, which matches everything above. The finding they were testing is the other one: across every variable there was a high degree of variability in the specific phase women named, with age, having a partner and hormonal contraception moderating it. Women differ significantly in whether and when they experience these increases.
Diamond and colleagues ran a one-month daily diary with 148 cisgender women, 32% lesbian-identified, 35% bisexually identified, 33% heterosexual-identified. Women with exclusive same-gender orientations reported increased motivation for same-gender sexual contact during the higher-fertility phase. Women with exclusive other-gender orientations showed no parallel increase, and bisexually attracted women showed no phase-related changes. Rates of partnered sexual contact did not increase in any group, and across 14 mid-cycle days of salivary estrogen and testosterone no significant association appeared between daily hormones and sexual motivation. The authors write that traditional evolutionary models do not adequately reflect the full range of cycle-related changes among sexually diverse women.
One small study against several larger ones, and a real result in a population the older literature barely sampled.
| Study | Women | Design | What moved | What did not |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arslan 2021 | 1,054; 429 naturally cycling | Preregistered diary, 26,680 days; fertile period inferred from menstrual onset | In-pair desire, extra-pair desire and behaviour, self-perceived desirability | Mate retention, clothing, narcissism; partner attractiveness |
| Roney and Simmons 2013 | Not stated in the abstract | Daily saliva across 1 to 2 cycles plus diary | Estradiol up, progesterone down; progesterone mediated the luteal fall | Testosterone; the follicular rise, mediated by no hormone |
| Jones 2018 | 375 | Longitudinal hormone sampling | General desire fell as progesterone rose; estradiol positive, mostly solitary desire | Testosterone, cortisol; desire for uncommitted relationships |
| Kiesner 2025 | 585, aged 18 to 40 | Online survey, retrospective self-report | Increases somewhat more common in the ovulatory phase | Any consistent phase across women |
| Diamond 2022 | 148 cisgender women | One-month diary; salivary hormones on 14 mid-cycle days | Same-gender motivation in exclusively same-gender-attracted women | Partnered contact; hormone-to-motivation associations; bisexual women |
| Pillsworth 2004 | 173, none on oral contraceptives | Conception-probability estimates plus self-reported desire | An ovulatory peak among partnered women only | Anything in unpartnered women |
| Caruso 2014 | 1,180 analysed; 925 partnered, 255 single | Cohort 2004 to 2011; ovulation ultrasound-confirmed | Single women's activity, higher at ovulation, lower at menses, than partnered women's | The weekend pattern in partnered women, which held in every phase |
High sex drive before a period, and the honest answer
Plenty of women describe the opposite of the textbook curve, with the strongest week of the month landing in the days before bleeding starts. High sex drive before a period is one of the most searched versions of this question.
The reports are common enough to show up in the data: the 585-woman survey found increases named in every phase, with only a modest tilt toward the ovulatory one. The hormone studies offer no story for it. Progesterone is highest that week and the daily-sampling studies tie high progesterone to lower desire, so a premenstrual peak runs against the group-level pattern. Nobody has published a mechanism, and anyone who hands you one has made it up.
Low sex drive before a period is the more common report, and it lines up with the progesterone finding. Both are true of different women, and neither makes you unusual.
Sex drive during your period, and the week after
Menstruation has the least research attached to it. The ultrasound-confirmed cohort is the cleanest evidence: single women's activity was lower during menses than the partnered women's. That is activity, and the reasons are not all hormonal.
Sex drive after a period is the interesting gap. Desire climbs through the follicular phase toward the mid-cycle peak, and in the daily-saliva study no combination of hormone measures substantially mediated that rise. A well-documented climb with no known driver is a fair summary of how young this field is.
PMS, PMDD, and a treatment trade-off worth knowing
Conzatti and colleagues compared sexual-function scores in the luteal and follicular phases between women with premenstrual syndrome and women without. There was no difference between the groups in either phase. They did find an association between the luteal phase itself and worse scores, in everybody, and conclude that PMS does not affect female sexual function. It is cross-sectional, and the abstract reports no sample size.
PMDD is a more severe diagnosis and nobody knows yet. Susser and colleagues wrote a narrative review, the weakest review design there is. They found few studies of sexual function in women with PMDD and significant methodologic limitations in the ones that exist, describe plausible biological, social and psychological links, and call for investigation. That is the state of the evidence.
The trade-off attached to the most common treatment is better documented. The 2024 Cochrane review of SSRIs for premenstrual symptoms pooled 34 randomized trials. SSRIs probably reduce overall self-rated premenstrual symptoms (SMD -0.57, 95% CI -0.72 to -0.42; 12 studies, 1,742 participants, moderate certainty), and continuous dosing was probably more effective than luteal-phase-only dosing (-0.69 against -0.39, p = 0.03). Adverse effects were pooled separately, and sexual dysfunction or decreased libido came in at odds of 2.32.
The PMDD treatment trade-off, in one paper
Pooled odds of each adverse effect on an SSRI against placebo, from the 2024 Cochrane review. The vertical line at 1.0 is the point of no association. Whiskers are 95% confidence intervals. The libido row is orange.
Source: Jespersen C et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2024 (PMID 39140320). Rows pool 4 to 18 trials each (1,230 to 3,722 women); the libido row is 14 studies, 2,781 women. Moderate certainty, suspected publication bias, 68% pharmaceutical-funded.
That is information for a prescriber, and nothing else. Do not change or stop an SSRI on your own. If your premenstrual symptoms are being treated and desire dropped afterwards, open the next appointment with that sentence. What helps when an SSRI flattens libido covers the wider question.
Hormonal birth control, and what happens to the pattern
The preregistered diary study used women on hormonal contraception as its quasi-control group for a specific reason: they menstruate without ovulating, so the ovulatory shifts under test are shifts that group cannot show. In the 585-woman survey, hormonal contraception was one of the three things that moderated the phase increases women reported.
Both findings are narrow, and neither says anything about whether your overall level of desire changed when you started the pill. That is a separate question, covered in birth control and low libido and the sensation drop some women report on it.
How to read your own pattern in three cycles
Group averages describe nobody. Three months of your own data beats every chart online.
- Track desire on its own line, separately from how often you have sex. Every study above that measured both found them moving differently, and the partnered women in the ultrasound cohort had more sex at the weekend whatever the phase.
- Write down your contraception. On a hormonal method that stops ovulation, the mid-cycle rise described here is not a thing your body is doing.
- Note whether you have a partner and how long you have been together. Both changed the result in the studies that looked.
- Look for the floor. A wobble of a few days is a cycle pattern; three months of nothing, in every phase, is a different question that a calendar cannot answer.
- Take it to a doctor if the floor is flat, if desire dropped after a medication change, or if pain, bleeding or premenstrual symptoms are bad enough to organise your month around. PCOS, endometriosis and perimenopause each change what a cycle means.
The everyday levers, and where a botanical fits
Before anything else: NUUD's own label says to avoid use if you are on blood pressure medication, have cardiovascular, renal, or pulmonary conditions, or if you are sensitive to any of the ingredients. For a lot of readers that sentence ends the conversation.
The free levers do more work than the internet admits. Sleep, in quantity. Stress you have some control over, covered in stress, cortisol and sex drive. Movement you enjoy. Time and safety with no expectation attached. Proper care for premenstrual symptoms bad enough to flatten a week.
NUUD is a botanical supplement built around desire in general. It does nothing for your hormones, nothing for ovulation, nothing for your cycle, and it has no role in PMS, PMDD or any other condition. The formula is anchored by the NUUD Mushroom Complex™, with Muira Puama, Boiled Rehmannia Root, Tribulus Terrestris and Piper Nigrum for absorption, on a timeline of roughly 30 to 60 minutes, taken on the evenings you choose. If your doctor has read the label and has no objection, that is what our women's libido gummies are for; the men's version exists. Talk to your doctor first and bring the label.
"Nothing is wrong with you"
Two unhelpful answers are in circulation. One is a chart promising a peak on day 14 that your body has never delivered. The other is a shrug about hormones.
The research supports neither. The mid-cycle rise is real, replicated and modest, and progesterone tracks the fall after it. The size of both varies enormously between women, and one diary study of sexually diverse women found the classic model did not fit most of them.
If your drive is nowhere to be found in every week of every month, the calendar is the wrong suspect. Start with why is my libido so low or the women's guide, low libido in women. You want to feel normal again, and somebody else's average month was never going to get you there.
Keep reading
- Why sex drive comes and goes
- Responsive and spontaneous desire
- Birth control and low libido
- Perimenopause and sex drive
- Normal labs, low libido
Frequently asked questions
Does ovulation increase sex drive?
Yes, on average, and modestly. The largest preregistered diary study, covering 26,680 diary days from 1,054 women of whom 429 were naturally cycling, found ovulatory increases in in-pair desire, extra-pair desire and self-perceived desirability. Sex drive during ovulation was higher in the partnered women of a 2004 sample of 173, and uncorrelated with conception probability in the unpartnered. A survey of 585 women found increases somewhat more common in the ovulatory phase, alongside high variability in which phase each woman named. All of it is observational.
Why is my sex drive so high before my period?
Nobody knows. The reports are common while the mechanism is missing. In the 585-woman survey, women named increases in every phase of the cycle, with only a modest tilt toward the ovulatory one, so a premenstrual peak is a normal thing to report. It runs against the group-level hormone pattern, because progesterone is highest that week and the daily-sampling studies tie higher progesterone to lower desire. No published study explains it, so treat any confident mechanism you are offered as invented.
Why is my sex drive low in the luteal phase?
Progesterone is the hormone that tracks it. In daily saliva sampling across one to two cycles, day-to-day desire showed positive effects of estradiol and negative effects of progesterone, and measured progesterone statistically mediated the fall from mid-cycle into the luteal phase. A separate longitudinal study of 375 women found within-woman general desire negatively related to progesterone and unrelated to testosterone or cortisol. These are within-woman correlations in small observational samples, so they describe a pattern and prove no mechanism.
Does PMDD lower sex drive?
Nobody has established it either way. A narrative review of PMDD and sexual function found few studies and significant methodologic limitations in the ones that exist. For premenstrual syndrome, a cross-sectional comparison found no difference in sexual-function scores between women with PMS and women without it, though the luteal phase itself was associated with worse scores in everyone. The clearest documented connection is treatment: in the 2024 Cochrane review, SSRIs carried pooled odds of sexual dysfunction or decreased libido of 2.32 (95% CI 1.57 to 3.42; 14 studies, 2,781 women, moderate certainty, 68% pharmaceutical-funded). Do not change or stop an SSRI on your own.
Does birth control stop the cycle changes in sex drive?
It removes ovulation, so the ovulatory shift is not available to show. The preregistered diary study used women on hormonal contraception as a quasi-control group precisely because they menstruate without ovulating, and the survey of 585 women found hormonal contraception among the factors moderating the phase increases women reported. Neither says anything about whether your overall level of desire changed on the pill, a separate question with its own evidence.
References
- Arslan RC, Schilling KM, Gerlach TM, Penke L. Using 26,000 diary entries to show ovulatory changes in sexual desire and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2021;121(2):410-431. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30148371/
- Roney JR, Simmons ZL. Hormonal predictors of sexual motivation in natural menstrual cycles. Hormones and Behavior. 2013;63(4):636-645. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23601091/
- Roney JR, Simmons ZL. Within-cycle fluctuations in progesterone negatively predict changes in both in-pair and extra-pair desire among partnered women. Hormones and Behavior. 2016;81:45-52. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27049465/
- Jones BC, Hahn AC, Fisher CI, et al. General sexual desire, but not desire for uncommitted sexual relationships, tracks changes in women's hormonal status. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2018;88:153-157. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29287282/
- Kiesner J, Bittoni C, Pastore M. Female Sexual Desire, Response, and Activity Across the Menstrual Cycle. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. 2025;51(8):937-954. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41216822/
- Diamond LM, Dickenson JA, Blair KL. Menstrual Cycle Changes in Daily Sexual Motivation and Behavior Among Sexually Diverse Cisgender Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2022;51(1):577-588. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35028805/
- Pillsworth EG, Haselton MG, Buss DM. Ovulatory shifts in female sexual desire. Journal of Sex Research. 2004;41(1):55-65. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15216424/
- Caruso S, Agnello C, Malandrino C, et al. Do hormones influence women's sex? Sexual activity over the menstrual cycle. Journal of Sexual Medicine. 2014;11(1):211-221. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24344697/
- Conzatti M, Maciel RF, Perez AV, et al. Premenstrual Syndrome and Female Sexual Function. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. 2021;47(2):186-196. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33302813/
- Susser LC, Parish S, Dumas E, Nappi RE. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder and sexual function: a narrative review. Sexual Medicine Reviews. 2023;11(3):202-211. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36941212/
- Jespersen C, Lauritsen MP, Frokjaer VG, Schroll JB. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2024;8(8):CD001396. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39140320/
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. PMS, PMDD and any cycle problem that disrupts your life are matters for a licensed clinician. NUUD is a botanical supplement with no role in diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing PMS, PMDD or any other disease, and these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Talk with your doctor before starting any new supplement, and do not stop or change your medication without your doctor.
