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Waxing and waning of the moon dictates a woman's monthly cycle, a new study claims.

The study, which was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's meeting in Hawaii earlier this month, postulates an evolutionary link between the cycles of moon and that of the fairer sex. The study's authors made their conclusions after analysing data collected randomly from over 8,000 women. They found that the onset of periods was marked by full moon while ovulation happened during new moon days, Zee News reported.

The Daily Mail reported the study's author Philip Chenette, an infertility expert from San Francisco, pointing a link between evolution and a woman's cycles.

"It's really curious that women's menstrual cycles are every 28 days. I mean, why is that? There's absolutely no medical reason why that has to be. It turns out that probably just goes back to evolution and the fact we used to live outdoors and we were exposed to lunar cycles for thousands and thousands of years. And that related to harvest and times of plenty and all these kinds of things and reproduction, of course, has to be timed to natural rhythms. It's just a fascinating phenomenon," he said.

Dr. Chenette's theory is that the hormone melatonin, responsible for regulating a woman's cycle, is perhaps influenced by moon's light. Other experts believe that complete darkness during new moon provides a natural cover for mating partners and protects them predators. Therefore, women's fertility peaks during new moon, which is about a fortnight from full moon.

The findings have also been received sceptically by experts, some of who attributed the equality in lengths of both cycles, to coincidence.

"The only relationship between period and the full moon is that they both occur once every four weeks," said Professor Sheena Lewis, of Queen's University Belfast, according to Metro.