A groundbreaking study is examining whether the menstrual cycle intensifies ADHD symptoms in women, a link many have long described anecdotally on social media but which has never been formally tested. Layla, a 30-year-old teaching assistant, relies on a string of phone alarms just to get through her day, using them to wake up, get dressed, and pack her work bag.
“There’s a million different ones. Different times of the day,” Layla said, describing how the system helps keep her ADHD brain focused and maintains her routine. But she says that sense of control disappears as her period approaches, the peak point of her menstrual cycle. “It’s like you’re clinging on, for dear life, onto the ball that is continuing to roll, and sort of cursing yourself and the world the entire time.”
According to the NHS, ADHD is a condition in which the brain functions differently from most people’s, often causing difficulties with concentration, emotional regulation, and staying still. Online forums and social media are full of women discussing how their menstrual cycles seem to worsen their ADHD symptoms, prompting researchers at Queen Mary University and King’s College London to launch what is described as a first-of-its-kind study.
The research asks 50 women with ADHD who are taking medication for the condition to track their menstrual cycles alongside the severity of their symptoms and the impact on daily life. Roughly 2.5 million people in the UK are believed to have ADHD, with hundreds of thousands currently waiting for an NHS diagnosis. Growing awareness of the condition, particularly how it presents in women, combined with heightened social media discussion, has fueled an unprecedented rise in demand for ADHD assessments.
NHS figures from December show a 23% increase in stimulant medications prescribed for ADHD compared with the previous year. Yet a government taskforce report from November found that ADHD remains under-diagnosed and under-treated, and the BBC has previously reported that some areas of England are closing their NHS waiting lists entirely due to overwhelming demand.
Nineteen-year-old Héloïse, who is studying for three university degrees, describes ritalin, her ADHD medication, as a lifeline that grants her a three-hour window of focus for studying. She takes the pill, sits in the library, and waits for it to take effect. But during her period, she says she simply “waits and waits” for a reaction that never arrives. “It feels like losing a walking stick or something you use to support yourself. All of a sudden it’s broken,” she said, adding that she only recognized the pattern between her hormonal changes and ADHD symptoms after mapping them for the study.
Other participants used similarly striking language, with some describing feeling “disabled” by their symptoms at certain points in their cycle. The women involved have kept electronic diaries tracking their hormone levels alongside symptoms including anxiety, depression, and impulsive behavior, allowing researchers to examine whether patterns emerge both in symptom severity and in how well medication manages them.
Psychiatrist Sally Cubbin, a neurodiversity specialist involved in the King’s College study, believes hormones and ADHD are closely intertwined and hopes the trial will help confirm that connection. She explained that during certain points in a woman’s cycle, particularly just before a period when oestrogen levels drop, the resulting effect on dopamine, the body’s “feel-good” hormone, can significantly intensify ADHD symptoms.
Dr Cubbin said these monthly oestrogen dips don’t just impair focus and task management. “Women are also more likely to make dodgy decisions and take risks,” she said, citing behaviors such as binge eating, impulsive spending, and even skipping contraception. Layla said such impulsive tendencies feel very familiar, particularly around food. “I love pickles. I know that if I eat too many pickles I’m gonna feel ill,” she said, explaining that the urge isn’t driven by hunger but by an impulse that becomes difficult to control once it takes hold.
Dr Jessica Agnew-Blais, the lead academic on the King’s College project, said ADHD in women, especially adults, remains an important and relatively new area of research, noting that until the late 1990s the condition was widely viewed as one that primarily affected boys. “We’re seeing increasing numbers of women,” said Dr Catherine Durkin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, attributing the rise to growing awareness of how ADHD symptoms can present differently in women, prompting more to seek help after recognizing lifelong struggles.
Many women have also expressed interest in how menopause and perimenopause, both major hormonal transitions, might affect their ADHD, a question Dr Agnew-Blais said her still-ongoing study could offer a useful starting point for exploring. She emphasized that the goal isn’t to change who someone is, but rather to help ADHD “fit into your life a little bit better.”
Layla said she has often been hard on herself for not “coming up to scratch,” but that participating in the research has felt validating and freeing. “Understanding that this is something that a lot of women are going through every month for most of their life. It’s good to have kind of community and feel like that it’s okay, this isn’t just me.”
