Individual differences in the relationship between ovarian hormones and emotional eating across the menstrual cycle: A role for personality?

Within-person changes in estradiol and progesterone predict changes in binge eating tendencies across the menstrual cycle. However, all women have menstrual-cycle fluctuations in hormones, but few experience binge eating. Personality traits may be critical individual difference factors that influence who will engage in emotional eating in the presence of a vulnerable hormonal environment. Women (N = 239) provided self-reports of emotional eating and saliva samples for hormone measurement for 45 consecutive days. Negative urgency and negative emotionality were measured once and were examined as moderators of hormone-emotional eating associations. Consistent with prior research, within-person changes in the interaction between estradiol and progesterone predicted emotional eating. Neither negative urgency nor negative emotionality interacted with changes in estradiol and progesterone to predict changes in emotional eating. Additional factors, other than the two personality traits examined, may account for individual differences in within-person associations between hormones and emotional eating.

► Individual differences exist for ovarian hormone-emotional eating relationships.
► Negative urgency and negative emotionality did not moderate these relationships.
► Changes in propensity for impulsive action may instead moderate associations.
► Ovarian hormone interactions predict emotional eating independent of personality.