Ever woke up, looked at your other half and just felt a bit, erm... meh?
It's weird, because you obviously love them and last week you could barely keep your hands off them. But today, everything they do is annoying and you just don't find them *quite* as attractive. Savage, but true.
It's a strange phenomenon, but one that's based on science.
A new study, published in Biological Psychology, is the first to explore how a rise and fall in women's hormones affects their own psychology in terms of relationship satisfaction.
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Researchers collected urine samples from 33 women for 15 days and tested the estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone levels.
All of the women were in heterosexual relationships that had lasted for at least four months, and none of them were taking hormonal contraception.
At the same time, they asked the women and their male partners to complete nightly surveys regarding their relationship, where they'd answer questions about relationship satisfaction, perceptions of their partner, physical attraction and other factors including their sex life, jealousy and personal wellbeing.
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The researchers found that both women and their partners viewed the relationship more negatively on the days where women had higher estradiol levels. In addition, as estradiol increased, women found their partners less physically attractive.
"Hormones have an under-appreciated effect on behaviors. This is true for men and women, just as it's true for animals of other species," said lead author Francesca Righetti, an associate professor at Vrije University in Amsterdam.
"Researchers have begun to explore how the hormonal variations that naturally and reliably occur across the ovulatory cycle - specifically, variation in the hormones estradiol and progesterone - affect how women think and feel."
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"But less work has examined how variation in hormones affect both members of a relationship. Given our interests in romantic relationships, we aimed to better understand what aspects of romantic relationships vary as a function of these hormones, and which do not."
Of course there are some limitations to the study (for one, the researcher's sample was relatively small) but it certainly gives some exciting insights - and explanations - into exactly why you're sometimes feeling a little off.
Lads, may the estradiol Gods be with you.
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Life