Menstruation, Health And Illness

Diana L. Taylor, Nancy F. Woods, Diana L. Taylor, Nancy F. Woods

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317740414
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Gynecology, Obstetrics & Midwifery

The seventh conference of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research, held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in June 1987, continued the work of previous meetings to provide a forum for research and knowledge about menstrual cycle phenomena. Founded in 1978, The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research is an organization of scientists, scholars, clinicians, students, and consumers who share an interest in women's lives and health needs as these relate to the menstrual cycle. In addition to the main theme, the seventh conference focused on (a) psychosocial, cultural, and historical aspects of the menstrual cycle, (b) theoretical issues and management considerations for premenstrual syndrome, and (c) future directions in menstrual cycle research.

First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Part One

The Experience of Menstruation

At menarche, women are forced to adapt to neurohormonal cyclicity involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-ovarian system. For 30-40 years after the onset of menarche women experience the rise and fall associated with ovarian hormones and subsequent interaction with other neurohormonal events. The cyclicity of menstruation has a profound effect on women’s lives. Not only a physiological process, menstruation is associated with feminine role development and feelings of health and well-being, and it is embedded in the sociocultural context of women’s experience.

The papers reported in this section contribute to the knowledge of the experience of menstruation; an experience that encompasses psychosocial, cultural, neuroendocrine, and technological dimensions. Voda, Morgan, Root, and Smith (Chapter 1) report on the Tremin Trust, an intergenerational research program and database for studying the events associated with women’s menstrual and reproductive lives. This research program and database, initiated in 1934, resides at the University of Utah and currently includes 1,316 active intergenerational and crosscultural recordkeepers. The Tremin Trust is the largest active database providing prospective information on events associated with women’s menstrual and reproductive lives.

In a prospective study of the comparative impact of the “social cycle” and menstrual cycle on Australian women’s mood performance and sexual interest, Ripper (Chapter 2) found that mood was affected by both menstrual and social cycle. The statistical analyses provide a strong illustration of the social mediation of the menstrual cycle. Ripper suggests that women filter their mood and sexual sensations through competing interpretive frameworks: perception of menstrual cycle phase and weekend or weekday. She defines these interpretive frameworks as “cognitive constructs,” which operate at a background, subliminal level for the individual woman.

Little is known about the beliefs about menstruation in American cultural subgroups. Jurgens and Powers (Chapter 3), in an exploratory study of Head-start mothers, studied their menstrual euphemisms, beliefs, and taboos. These data provide important baseline information about a particular ethnic culture of women, and the authors also provide reflections on the implications for research, education, and clinical practice.

Improved technology allows us to study the interactive effects of the neuroendocrine environment in relation to the menstrual cycle. Cardona, Tandon, Haskett, and Greden (Chapter 4) review the evidence for alterations in the activity of various neurotransmitter and endocrine systems across the menstrual cycle and present data indicating that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function varies with the phase of the menstrual cycle. In studying serum Cortisol after a dexamethasone suppression test in women diagnosed with major depression, these authors suggest that the menstrual cycle must be considered in the interpretation of results of various neuroendocrine tests.

Phillis (Chapter 5) reports on research focused on the effects of the menstrual cycle at intracellular and neuronal level. This author reviews the research-based literature on the effects of steroid hormones on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal neuron activity related to adenosine. He reports data suggesting that modifications of adenosinergic inhibitory tone, resulting in enhanced (17/3-estradiol) or reduced (progesterone) neuronal excitability may represent important elements of the communication between the body and the brain that is essential for appropriate integrated behavioral response. Phillis applies this knowledge to clinical therapeutics, suggesting that manipulation of adenosinergic substances (caffeine, theophylline, methylxanthines) may provide a convenient and accessible route for the control of these imbalances.

In another study of the relationship between behavior and the neuroendocrine events associated with the menstrual cycle, Hedricks, Piccinino, and Udry (Chapter 6) ask two questions: Do changes in women’s hormones at midcycle affect coital behavior? And, can menstrual cycle length estimate the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge onset day? Since biological specimens with which to determine LH surge onset day are not available to all investigators, the authors attempted to estimate LH surge onset day using a nonhormonal measure (menstrual cycle length). Although there was a strong positive correlation between cycle length and LH surge onset day, cycle length alone was not sufficient to accurately predict LH surge onset day. The estimation did not yield the observed midcycle peak in coitus on LH surge onset day. However, LH surge onset day at midcycle appears to be a biologically meaningful reference point from which to explore changes in human behavior across the menstrual cycle.

Chapter 7 provides an interesting and futuristic look at the experience of menstruation. Czerwinski, a consultant to the NASA Space Station Personal Hygiene Study, discusses the research related to Earth practices for the personal hygiene activity of feminine hygiene in space. This author describes space travel in the future that will involve large numbers of people living and working together for long periods of time under confined conditions in a hostile environment. Czerwinski poses research questions and ideas to guide hygiene procedures related to the menstrual cycle and space travel.

Chrisler, in Chapter 8, the final chapter in Part One, investigates changes in creative thinking across the menstrual cycle in regularly menstruating healthy women and compares them to a control group of men. Although no significant differences in cognitive function were found for women during premenstruum, one third of the women perceived their performance to be impaired during the premenstrual phase.

Chapter 1

The Tremin Trust: An Intergenerational Research Program on Events Associated with Women’s Menstrual and Reproductive Lives

Ann M. Voda, Julene Morgan, Janet Root, and Ken R. Smith

INTRODUCTION

The Tremin Trust Research Program on Women’s Health was initiated in 1934 under the directorship of Dr. Alan E. Treloar at the University of Minnesota. The project, initially called the Menstruation and Reproductive History (MRH) program, was designed to collect data prospectively on events associated with women’s menstrual and reproductive lives. The original goal of the research was to determine the magnitude of the variability in the menstrual experience among women.

Contrary to evidence available at that time, Treloar (1979) suggested that “regularity” as applied to the menstrual cycle was a vague term and should not be taken literally to mean without variation. Instead, according to Treloar, the “cycle” needed to be reconceptualized as a complex variable. Treloar also postulated that there was no such thing as an average cycle and that duration of bleeds and intervals between bleeds differed from one woman to another as well as varying from one cycle to another within the same woman. Thus, the need for a large number of individual menstrual histories, each covering several years of experience, became apparent. Commencing in 1935, a large group of university women was recruited for the sole purpose of recording onset and stop of menstrual bleeds. Treloar hoped that sufficient data could be gathered to disprove the common myth that women menstruated regularly, every 28 days. Since its inception, however, the scope of the program has been expanded.

In January of 1984, after Dr. Treloar’s retirement, the program was acquired by the University of Utah College of Nursing. Dr. Ann M. Voda was appointed program director. The Trust, at present, is a nonprofit research program supported largely through grant awards and contributions. It is the only ongoing program of its kind in the world.

PARTICIPANTS

Three primary groups of women were enrolled in the MRH program between 1934 and 1965.

Group 1: 1930s Panel

Women enrolled at the University of Minnesota volunteered to be participants in the study between 1934 and 1939. Initially, a pilot group of 525 women were recruited through physical education classes and sororities. Another 1,825 women were enrolled through the Student Health Center....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• PART 1: THE EXPERIENCE OF MENSTRUATION
• PART 2: PERIMENSTRUAL SYMPTOMS AND PERIMENSTRUAL SYNDROMES
• PART 3: MENOPAUSE: NORMATIVE TRANSITION OR ILLNESS EVENT?
• Index