Eating disorders: what the research says

Do mental health disorders get worse during the menstrual cycle?

Yes, several mental health disorders like depression, panic attacks, eating disorders and borderline personality disorder clearly worsen around menstruation. The evidence is less clear for anxiety or bipolar disorder.

Is PMS or PMDD linked to eating disorders like bulimia and binge eating?

Yes. Women with PMDD had 7 times higher odds of bulimia nervosa and women with PMS had 2.5 times higher odds of bulimia, but neither was strongly linked to binge-eating disorder.

Are PMDD and ADHD linked in women with bipolar disorder?

In women with bipolar disorder, 44.2% have PMDD, and those with PMDD also have higher ADHD symptom scores. Genetic risk for ADHD was linked to both PMDD severity and ADHD symptoms.

Can group therapy help adolescent girls with PMS manage emotions and reduce binge eating?

Yes. Adolescent girls who received group supportive psychotherapy showed significant improvement in anger control, mood, anxiety, and positive emotions, and a significant reduction in binge eating compared to girls who did not receive treatment.

Do women with eating disorders experience more menstrual distress, and does birth control help?

Yes, women with eating disorders reported significantly more menstrual distress than healthy women across all symptoms measured. Birth control reduced distress only in those with milder eating disorder symptoms, not in those with more severe symptoms.

Do female athletes have lower PMS than female non-athletes?

Yes. Female athletes had noticeably lower PMS and night eating syndrome compared to female non-athletes.

Are calorie tracking and eating disorders linked to menstrual problems in female athletes?

64.6% of resistance-trained athletes tracked calories. Limited connections appeared between body image concerns or eating disorders and menstrual cycle problems. However, there was a clear link between eating disorders and missing periods.

How are eating disorders and premenstrual symptoms connected?

Eating disorder and premenstrual symptoms are linked in ways beyond their individual effects on eating. Specific symptoms like body dissatisfaction, calorie counting, and negative emotions connect the two.

Do appetite hormones and eating behaviors change differently across the luteal phase in women with PMDD?

Women with PMDD have higher leptin levels throughout the luteal phase and show increased sweet cravings and uncontrolled eating, but changes in leptin are not linked to eating changes while depression and impulsivity are more important.

Does what or how adolescents eat matter for PMS?

How adolescents eat matters more than what they eat. Those with PMS are more likely to have disordered eating behaviors like emotional eating, but their actual diet is the same as those without PMS.

Do genetic influences on emotional eating change across the menstrual cycle?

Yes. Genetic influences on emotional eating were two times higher after ovulation compared to before ovulation. Before ovulation, environmental factors played a larger role.

Does weight preoccupation change during the menstrual cycle, and what causes these changes?

Yes, weight preoccupation is highest in the premenstrual and menstrual phases. However, hormones are not the main cause. Emotional eating is the strongest predictor of when women worry more about weight during the cycle.

Do personality traits affect whether hormone changes cause emotional eating?

Hormone changes predict emotional eating, but personality traits like negative urgency and negative emotionality don't explain why some women are more affected.

Do hormone changes during the menstrual cycle cause increases in emotional eating?

Yes. Changes in estrogen and progesterone together predict changes in emotional eating, with the highest emotional eating occurring during the midluteal phase when progesterone peaks.

Do women with PMDD crave high-sugar and high-fat foods more than other women?

Yes. Women with PMDD had higher cravings for sweet, fatty foods, especially during the luteal phase. This was linked to their greater sensitivity to food rewards and emotional response to food.

Are irregular menstrual cycles linked to eating disorder risk in female athletes?

Yes. Female athletes with irregular cycles had higher eating disorder risk than athletes with regular cycles. Non-athletes showed no such link.

Are hormone-related chemicals different in women with mood disorders during the menstrual cycle?

Women with bipolar disorder and major depression had higher levels of progesterone and a related chemical (3alpha,5alpha-THPROG) during the luteal phase compared to healthy women. This difference was present whether or not they were taking medication.

Does myo-inositol help reduce PMDD symptoms?

No, myo-inositol (12 g daily) did not reduce PMDD symptoms more than placebo.

Do eating habits change differently before the period in obese versus non-obese women?

Yes. Both groups show increases in binge-eating symptoms before their period, but the cause differs: in non-obese women, eating changes correlate with mood symptoms, while in obese women they correlate with physical symptoms.

What causes irregular periods in women with bulimia, and do they improve with treatment?

Irregular periods in bulimia were linked to vomiting, low thyroid hormone, and low dietary fat. After 12 months of treatment, 56.8 percent of women with irregular cycles became regular. This study concerns eating disorders, not PMS or PMDD.

What conditions beyond depression can antidepressants treat?

Newer antidepressants including SSRIs have FDA approval for several conditions including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. Controlled studies also show they help premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

Does a special carbohydrate drink help mood and thinking problems in PMS?

Yes, the carbohydrate beverage significantly reduced depression, anger, confusion, and food cravings 90 to 180 minutes after drinking it, and improved memory performance.

Does how much women eat change during the menstrual cycle?

Yes. Women eat more, especially fat, during the later part of their cycle.

How do food, serotonin, and mood relate in PMS and other conditions?

This review discusses how serotonin, a brain chemical, affects mood and eating in conditions including PMS. It suggests that treatments like antidepressants (SSRIs) and light therapy may work for these conditions because they involve similar serotonin problems.

Can anxiety and PMDD trigger binge drinking, and can medication help?

This single case shows that a woman whose binge drinking episodes were triggered by anxiety and linked to her PMDD improved with medication: her anxiety and drinking urges decreased, and she had no new drinking episodes at 12 weeks.

Is there a link between eating disorders and PMS in adolescents?

Yes. Significant links were found between PMS severity and eating disorder symptoms, including obsession with healthy eating.

How does PMDD affect eating behaviors?

People with PMDD have eating patterns that change across their menstrual cycle, including binge eating, restrictive eating, and purging. Many struggle to get support because healthcare providers don't understand PMDD well enough.

How do eating behavior and mood change during the menstrual cycle in women using birth control?

Women not using birth control showed more emotional and compulsive eating in the early cycle phase, while women using birth control pills showed less change. This is a small study of 84 university students.

Is PMS or PMDD linked to eating disorders?

Yes. Women with PMDD had higher scores for eating disorders, emotional eating, and uncontrolled eating than women without PMS. The link between PMDD and emotional eating was strongest in overweight women.

Do women with severe PMS symptoms have higher odds of eating disorders?

Yes. Women with worse PMS have higher odds of eating disorders, mainly because they tend to engage in more emotional eating and food addiction, particularly if they have unhelpful thinking patterns.

Is PMS linked to body fat percentage and eating disorder risk?

Women with PMS had a slightly higher body fat percentage. However, high BMI, not PMS, was the main independent risk factor for eating disorders.

Does what women eat affect how severe their PMS is?

The study suggests that specific nutrients may influence PMS severity, but the abstract does not specify which nutrients or how strong the effect is.

Is premenstrual syndrome linked to eating disorders in teenage girls?

Yes. Girls with PMS symptoms had higher rates of eating disorders, particularly those with psychological and behavioral symptoms.

Is PMS linked to changes in eating behavior?

Yes. Women with PMS had more uncontrolled eating and emotional eating compared to women without PMS. However, this only shows the behaviors go together, not that PMS causes them.

Is PMS linked to eating disorders and body fat?

Women with PMS had slightly higher body fat (38.1% vs 37.1%) and more smoking than women without PMS. However, high BMI, not PMS itself, was the main risk factor for eating disorders.

Is eating disturbance linked to worse PMS symptoms?

Yes, women with eating disturbances were more likely to have PMS symptoms and more severe physical PMS symptoms.

How does PMDD affect eating behaviors, and what barriers do people face seeking help?

People with PMDD experience disordered eating patterns including binge eating and restrictive eating, but this is very limited evidence from only 13 people in the UK.

Can fluoxetine help someone with both bulimia and PMDD?

In this one case, yes. A woman's binge and purge behaviors almost completely stopped after switching to fluoxetine, and her pre-menstrual mood and cognitive symptoms improved, though some mood symptoms continued.

What factors most influence PMS severity in college students?

Sleep problems and eating attitude problems were the strongest factors linked to worse PMS, along with menstrual pain. Together these explained about one quarter of why some women have worse symptoms.

How do eating habits change during the menstrual cycle in women with PMS?

During the luteal phase before the period, women eat less healthy food and more high-calorie food. All 50 women reported having at least one PMS symptom during this phase.

Is there a relationship between PMS and eating disorder symptoms in university students?

The study found high PMS rates and low eating disorder rates in nutrition students. Irregular sleep was linked to more severe PMS, but the relationship between PMS and eating attitudes needs more research.

Do different racial and ethnic groups experience depression, anxiety, and PMDD differently?

The review found inconsistent results. Women of color generally reported lower depression rates than White women, but they may experience different or more severe symptom patterns.

How does obesity affect the menstrual cycle in adolescents?

Adolescents with obesity are more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), and premenstrual disorders including PMS and PMDD. The hormonal changes in obesity help explain these connections.

Is disordered eating more common in women with PMDD?

Yes. Women with PMDD had disordered eating at 45.5%, much higher than those with moderate-to-severe PMS at 16.5% or no/mild PMS at 13.6%. Eating problems increase with symptom severity.

Is binge eating linked to worse PMS?

Yes. Women with binge eating symptoms had significantly more moderate to severe PMS symptoms, both physical and psychological.

Why do periods stop when you're stressed or eating poorly?

Stress, poor nutrition, overexercise, and sleep problems disrupt brain control of hormones, stopping periods. This condition can often be reversed by fixing these underlying causes.

Are premenstrual symptoms linked to stress and poor quality of life in female students?

Yes. Students with mixed premenstrual symptoms had high levels of stress. Those with premenstrual symptoms did poorly on physical, social, and mental health aspects of quality of life.

Do disordered eating symptoms change across the phases of the menstrual cycle?

This study tracked several types of disordered eating every day for a full cycle to see if they differ between cycle phases, after accounting for body weight and mood, but the actual results of that comparison are not given in the information available, so no clear answer can be reported here.

Can not eating enough or overexercising stop your period?

Yes. Between 16% and 47% of lean female athletes have disordered eating. Low energy, excessive exercise, and stress can stop periods, but periods usually return when these causes are addressed.

Are premenstrual symptoms linked to eating disorder symptoms?

Yes, women who reported more premenstrual symptoms also tended to report more eating disorder symptoms, such as body dissatisfaction, binge eating, purging, and restriction.

Does suppressing your true self in relationships contribute to women's mental health problems including PMDD?

Theory suggests that women who suppress their authentic thoughts and feelings in relationships may develop psychiatric conditions including PMDD. However, research specifically testing this connection is limited.

Is stress linked to PMS?

Women with PMS had significantly higher stress levels than healthy women. But stress and eating behaviour together showed only a weak link to PMS, so they may not be the main causes.

Does holding back your feelings affect women's health, including PMDD?

This review of past work says that holding back your feelings to avoid conflict, known as self-silencing, has been linked to several women's health problems, including premenstrual dysphoric disorder, but it does not prove that self-silencing causes these problems.

Does removing the ovaries help severe PMDD with binge eating?

In one woman with severe PMDD and binge eating that hadn't improved with many treatments, removing both ovaries stopped all PMDD symptoms including the binge eating and food cravings. This is one person, so we can't know if it works for others.

What is the impact of having both bipolar disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder?

Women with both conditions experience significantly worse bipolar illness: earlier onset, more rapid cycling, more mood episodes, and higher rates of anxiety disorders and other conditions. They also experience more severe symptoms during pregnancy and while taking oral contraceptives.

Do women with PMDD also have postpartum depression?

Rarely. Only about 11.7% of women with PMDD had a history of postpartum depression, suggesting these are separate conditions even though both involve mood changes.

How do mental health conditions change during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and perimenopause?

Women have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders than men. This review found that these conditions may change during the premenstrual phase and other reproductive stages, though it summarized existing research rather than testing new treatments.

Does how you feel about your body change across the menstrual cycle?

Yes, teenage girls in this study felt worse about their bodies in the days before their period compared with other times in the cycle, even after accounting for their weight.

Does how stressed women feel after eating behavior change based on menstrual cycle status?

Yes, in women with anorexia nervosa. Those with regular menstrual cycles felt less stressed after skipping meals, while those with irregular cycles felt more stressed. This suggests hormonal status affects how eating behaviors connect to stress.

Does anemia make PMS symptoms worse?

Yes. Girls with anemia had more severe PMS symptoms than girls without anemia. When anemic girls received iron supplements for 2 months, their symptoms improved significantly.

Does exercise help or hurt women's menstrual health?

Moderate exercise improves menstrual regularity and reproductive health. But excessive exercise without enough nutrition can cause loss of periods, weak bones, and eating disorders.

Does being on the birth control pill change how food cravings and hunger shift across the month?

Cravings and eating patterns were similar whether or not women were on the pill, both rising before and during the period. Hunger timing differed slightly: non-pill users felt hungrier only before their period, pill users felt hungrier both before and during the hormone-free bleed.

Does body dissatisfaction change across the menstrual cycle?

Body dissatisfaction was significantly higher during premenstrual and menstrual phases. However, actual perception of body size did not change across the cycle.

Can probiotics help with premenstrual syndrome?

The review notes that probiotics for PMS are described as 'rather hypothetical' and mostly studied by alternative medicine practitioners, without strong scientific evidence.

Do hormonal changes during the cycle affect binge eating in women without eating disorders?

Yes. Binge eating urges were higher in the two weeks before the period and lower when estrogen was higher, even in women without eating disorders.

How does acute tryptophan depletion help us understand mood disorders?

Acute tryptophan depletion is a research method that temporarily lowers serotonin levels in the brain to study its role in depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and psychiatric conditions.

Could a brain hormone called allopregnanolone explain mood problems like PMDD in women?

This review suggests that changes in allopregnanolone, a hormone-like substance in the brain, may be linked to mood problems including premenstrual dysphoria (PMDD), but this is a theory based on existing animal and human research, not new proof.

Do bulimia symptoms change across menstrual cycle phases?

Yes, bulimia symptoms worsen in mid-luteal and premenstrual phases compared to other cycle phases. The study is very small with only 8 women, so results need confirmation.

Do antidepressants help with PMDD symptoms?

Some antidepressants appear to help relieve PMDD symptoms in controlled studies. The evidence comes from reviews of existing research rather than new data.

What is the best way to diagnose premenstrual dysphoric disorder?

A three-step diagnostic process including phone screening, clinical interview, and daily symptom tracking over two menstrual cycles can accurately identify PMDD. Using this process, 4% of women tested had PMDD, matching rates reported in other studies.

Are hormone problems the cause of PMS?

No clear hormone abnormalities have been found in people with PMS, even though hormones seem connected to mood. A treatment that stops monthly cycles improved mood, but why this works is still unclear.

Are SSRIs effective for treating PMDD?

Yes, SSRIs are effective in treating PMDD and many related conditions in women, according to this review of depression treatment.

Does alprazolam (an anti-anxiety medicine) affect how much women with PMDD eat?

Yes. Alprazolam increased food intake during the premenstrual phase, especially fatty foods. Women who restrict eating were most affected, eating 26% more calories on the highest dose than on placebo.

Do SSRI antidepressants work for PMDD?

Yes, SSRIs are the treatment of choice for PMDD because they are effective, have acceptable side effects, and are well tolerated.

What does research say about diagnosing and treating PMS and PMDD?

This review explains that careful symptom tracking and ruling out other conditions are key to diagnosing PMS, and that some promising drug treatments exist for PMDD, though it is unclear if they work as well for milder premenstrual symptoms.

Are the eating changes some women get around their period part of a wider pattern of cyclic mind-body changes?

This review suggests yes: period-related eating changes may overlap with other cyclic conditions like PMS, seasonal mood changes, bipolar disorder, and binge eating, but it is an opinion-style review, not a trial, so it cannot prove cause and effect.

Are PMDD and eating disorders related?

Possibly. PMDD and eating disorders share high rates of mood and anxiety disorders and a personality trait called harm avoidance, but this small study cannot confirm they share a common cause.

Do psychiatric symptoms get worse during certain phases of the menstrual cycle?

Some reports suggest that psychiatric symptoms worsen during premenstrual and menstrual phases, but evidence is limited because most studies have been small and tracked women informally.

Does body image change across the menstrual cycle?

Yes. Women feel significantly more dissatisfied with their bodies and more anxious about their appearance in the perimenstrual phase compared to other times of the cycle.

What causes functional bloating (bloating with no clear medical cause) and how can it be treated?

The cause is unknown. Old explanations have been disproven, and newer ideas suggest recent weight gain, weak abdominal muscles, or fluid trapped in the small intestine. No treatment has been proven to work.

Do women with bulimia nervosa have higher testosterone levels than women without it?

Yes. Women with bulimia had significantly higher free testosterone (6.0 vs 3.9 pmol/l), suggesting androgens may play a role in poor impulse control. However, the study was small.

Can eating carbohydrates improve a bad mood, including PMS mood?

This review says yes, eating simple carbohydrates seems to give a temporary mood lift, including for premenstrual symptoms, though cutting carbs out entirely may give more lasting relief for some people, and the exact reason this works is still unknown.

Is severe overeating linked to the premenstrual period in women with PMS?

Yes. This woman experienced uncontrollable binge eating only during her premenstrual period, especially in the 3 to 5 days before her period.

Are brain chemistry changes linked to missing periods in women with eating disorders?

The study found that women with bulimia who stop bingeing have changes in a brain chemical called noradrenaline, and those who stopped menstruating showed the lowest levels. However, this is a very small study that does not prove whether the chemistry change causes period loss.

Does PMS come from a broken stress hormone system?

Women with PMS had a few small differences in their stress hormone (cortisol) responses compared to women without PMS, but their overall daily cortisol output was normal. This suggests only mild, temporary hormone shifts that the body seems able to correct on its own.

Can fear of menstruation that stops periods be treated with therapy?

This single case shows that a woman whose periods had stopped due to fear of menstruation was helped by cognitive therapy (talking about her thoughts and beliefs), which increased her confidence and brought her periods back.

Is neurotensin involved in causing PMS?

No. Women with PMS had similar neurotensin levels in their spinal fluid compared to healthy women. This brain chemical does not appear to be abnormal in PMS.

Does danazol help premenstrual tension symptoms?

Danazol may help some symptoms better than placebo, particularly breast pain, lethargy, anxiety and increased appetite by the third month. However, 13 of 40 women dropped out during the study, mostly because they felt the treatment was not helping.

What psychiatric conditions are associated with premenstrual tension syndrome?

Depression is the main psychiatric condition. Other conditions like anxiety, psychosis, alcoholism, and bulimia may also occur. Treating the psychiatric illness does not necessarily treat the premenstrual symptoms.

Does binge eating in bulimia get worse before your period?

Yes, this small study found a modest but statistically significant increase in binge eating during the premenstrual phase in women with bulimia.

Does premenstrual syndrome make bulimia symptoms, like binge eating, worse at certain times of the month?

No. The study found a premenstrual pattern of mood and physical changes in some women with bulimia, but these changes were not linked to changes in binge eating or other food-related behaviors.

Do women with PMS eat more food before their period?

Yes. Women with more severe PMS symptoms ate significantly more calories in the 10 days before their period.

Does lithium help with premenstrual tension?

Case reports suggested it might help, but well-designed research studies found no benefit.

Does menstruation cause extreme sleepiness?

One girl had severe sleepiness linked to her periods, sleeping about 14 hours a day during episodes. The cause is unclear, but hormones may play a role.