Can the phase of your menstrual cycle shape how creative you are? A study looking at the link between fertility and original thinking suggests it might.
Creative thinking sets us apart as a species. It helps us solve problems, find unconventional solutions, and drives progress more broadly. Researchers at SWPS University in Warsaw set out to explore how a woman's menstrual cycle relates to her creativity. Their reasoning: if creative thinking can serve as a signal of biological fitness to potential partners, then creativity should peak during the fertile window, close to ovulation, compared with other points in the cycle.
How the study worked
The researchers assessed creative potential across the full menstrual cycle. They recruited 1,045 Polish women aged 18 to 35 who weren't using hormonal contraception. Participants confirmed they weren't pregnant, hadn't given birth in the past three months, and weren't breastfeeding. Researchers excluded 294 women who didn't meet these criteria, leaving a final sample of 751.
Creativity during the ovulatory phase
The team wanted to know whether creative potential shifts across different phases of the cycle, specifically whether fluency, flexibility, and originality of thought rise alongside the probability of conception during fertile days. Their framework drew on Miller's signaling theory, which proposes that creativity may have evolved through sexual selection as a marker of biological fitness, playing a role in attracting a partner. Earlier research the authors cited suggests the ovulatory phase may be a time when women signal fertility in ways that draw more male interest. If creativity works the same way, it should increase during the window of peak fertility, around ovulation.
Defining creative thinking
The team worked from a definition of creative potential as the ability to think fluently and flexibly, generating original ideas. This is one of the most widely used frameworks in the psychology of creativity, and it captures the kind of everyday creativity most of us draw on, not just the flashes of insight associated with creative genius.
What the study found
The probability of conception was positively correlated with the originality of ideas and flexibility of thinking. The higher that probability, the more inventive the ideas women generated. Their ideas were also more varied and more likely to involve a shift in perspective, though not necessarily greater in number. Worth noting: this was a correlation, not proof that ovulation directly drives an increase in creativity.
Fertility, environment, and cognitive ability
The authors also pointed to environmental factors linked to fertility that may affect cognitive performance, including an unhealthy, high-fat diet, obesity, pollution, and exposure to toxic substances. These factors have been tied to fertility problems, lower egg quality, cycle irregularities, and infertility. They may also affect cognitive abilities, including creative thinking, though this connection still needs more research.
Are we more creative before ovulation?
The results suggest that originality and flexibility of thinking rose alongside the probability of conception. The authors interpret this through the lens of signaling theory: creativity may be one way biological fitness gets communicated to a potential partner. That doesn't mean every woman will feel most creative right before ovulation; the pattern held across the group as a whole, not for each individual. Still, it might be worth paying attention to your own cycle and noticing whether new ideas or shifts in perspective come more easily during the ovulatory phase.
