Longitudinal associations between women’s cycle characteristics and sexual motivation using Flo cycle tracking data

Abstract

In the current research, we used data from a sample of 16,327 menstrual cycle tracking app users to examine the association between menstrual cycle characteristics and sexual motivation tracked over 10 months of app use. Guided by past work that finds links between menstrual cycle characteristics related to conception risk and sexual motivation, we found that (a) between-women, shorter (r = − 0.04, p = 0.007), more regular cycles predicted small increases in sexual motivation (r = − 0.04, p = 0.001); (b) within-women, shorter cycles predicted greater sexual motivation that month (r = − 0.04, p < 0.001) and (c) the next month (βs: − 0.10 to − 0.06, ps < 0.001), but (d) changes in sexual motivation did not reliably precede changes in cycle length (βs: − 0.01 to 0.02, ps > 0.15). Within-woman analyses also revealed that (e) shorter cycles were followed by more frequent reports of fatigue (β = − 0.06, p < 0.001), insomnia (β = − 0.03, p < 0.001), and food cravings (β = − 0.04, p < 0.001). Together, results suggest that menstrual cycles characteristics and sexual motivation may covary together in ways that reflect changing investments in reproduction. Small effect sizes and lack of experimental control warrant cautious interpretations of results.