Menstrual cycle patterns of college students in Gorgan-Northeast of Iran: Identify its association with sociodemographic factors

Purpose: The menstrual cycle is used as a sign of women's health. Objective of study is determining the current menstrual patterns of students in Gorgan-Northeast of Iran, and evaluation of affecting factors on the cycle. Material and Methods: The study participants included 106 college student, females aged 18-30 that filled a questionnaire to detect the menstrual pattern, affecting factors on menstrual cycle. Main outcomes of variables compared using ANOVA. Logistic regression was used to model factors for menstrual regularity. Results: The mean ± SD age, menstruation lengths, age at menarche in student girls were 20.58±2.13, 28.02±1.88 and 13.53±1.30, respectively. 59.2% of girls had age 20-25 and 39.8% of these students had normal cycle. Also of 53.4 % of students with normal cycle, 31.8% of students had body mass index 20-24.99. Age at menarche of 56.8% of all participants was 13-14 years. Comparison of regression coefficients between factors and reported menstrual patterns shows similar results for students of all categories of menstrual cycle. Conclusion: This study provides a look at negative correlation of menstrual cycle's length with factors in college students of Gorgan - Northeast of Iran and points to importance of racial differences

Menstrual cycle and competitive bidding

In an experiment using two-bidder first-price sealed bid auctions with symmetric independent private values, we collected information on the female participants' menstrual cycles. We find that women bid significantly higher than men in their menstrual and premenstrual phase but do not bid significantly different in other phases of the menstrual cycle. We suggest an evolutionary hypothesis according to which women are genetically predisposed by hormones to generally behave more riskily during their fertile phase of their menstrual cycle in order to increase the probability of conception, quality of offspring, and genetic variety. Our finding is in contrast to results by Chen, Katuscak and Ozdenoren (2005, 2009).hormones; menstrual cycle; gender; likelihood of conception; first price auction; risk behavior; competition; bidding; endocrinological economics

Characterizing physiological and symptomatic variation in menstrual cycles using self-tracked mobile health data

The menstrual cycle is a key indicator of overall health for women of reproductive age. Previously, menstruation was primarily studied through survey results; however, as menstrual tracking mobile apps become more widely adopted, they provide an increasingly large, content-rich source of menstrual health experiences and behaviors over time. By exploring a database of user-tracked observations from the Clue app by BioWink of over 378,000 users and 4.9 million natural cycles, we show that self-reported menstrual tracker data can reveal statistically significant relationships between per-person cycle length variability and self-reported qualitative symptoms. A concern for self-tracked data is that they reflect not only physiological behaviors, but also the engagement dynamics of app users. To mitigate such potential artifacts, we develop a procedure to exclude cycles lacking user engagement, thereby allowing us to better distinguish true menstrual patterns from tracking anomalies. We uncover that women located at different ends of the menstrual variability spectrum, based on the consistency of their cycle length statistics, exhibit statistically significant differences in their cycle characteristics and symptom tracking patterns. We also find that cycle and period length statistics are stationary over the app usage timeline across the variability spectrum. The symptoms that we identify as showing statistically significant association with timing data can be useful to clinicians and users for predicting cycle variability from symptoms or as potential health indicators for conditions like endometriosis. Our findings showcase the potential of longitudinal, high-resolution self-tracked data to improve understanding of menstruation and women's health as a whole.Comment: The Supplementary Information for this work, as well as the code required for data pre-processing and producing results is available in https://github.com/iurteaga/menstrual_cycle_analysi

Menstrual cycle phase does not predict political conservatism

Recent authors have reported a relationship between women's fertility status, as indexed by menstrual cycle phase, and conservatism in moral, social and political values. We conducted a survey to test for the existence of a relationship between menstrual cycle day and conservatism. 2213 women reporting regular menstrual cycles provided data about their political views. Of these women, 2208 provided information about their cycle date, 1260 provided additional evidence of reliability in self-reported cycle date, and of these, 750 also indicated an absence of hormonal disruptors such as recent hormonal contraception use, breastfeeding or pregnancy. Cycle day was used to estimate day-specific fertility rate (probability of conception); political conservatism was measured via direct self-report and via responses to the "Moral Foundations” questionnaire. We also recorded relationship status, which has been reported to interact with menstrual cycle phase in determining political preferences. We found no evidence of a relationship between estimated cyclical fertility changes and conservatism, and no evidence of an interaction between relationship status and cyclical fertility in determining political attitudes. Our findings were robust to multiple inclusion/exclusion criteria and to different methods of estimating fertility and measuring conservatism. In summary, the relationship between cycle-linked reproductive parameters and conservatism may be weaker or less reliable than previously thought

The effects of uterine artery embolisation and surgical treatment on ovarian function in women with uterine fibroids

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare both ovarian function and menstrual characteristics following uterine artery embolisation (UAE) and surgery. Design Subgroup of women from a randomised controlled trial. Setting Gynaecology and radiology units in Scotland, UK. Population Ninety-six women from the randomised controlled trial comparing embolisation with surgery as a treatment for fibroids (REST), which recruited 157 patients (106 UAE; 51 surgery). Methods Seventy-three women undergoing UAE and 23 women undergoing surgery (with ovarian conservation) had serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) measurements taken on day 3 of the menstrual cycle prior to treatment, and at 6 and 12 months post-treatment. Data on menstrual cycle characteristics was also collected. Main outcome measures Ovarian failure, as defined by an FSH level of > 40 iu/l, and change in duration of menses and length of menstrual cycle. Results There was no significant difference in the rate of ovarian failure at 12 months between UAE (11%) and surgical patients (18%) (P = 0.44). This finding was not influenced by age. The mean duration of menstrual flow decreased significantly, from baseline to 12 months, by 1.7 days (SD 3.8), (95% CI 0.8-2.6). There was no statistically significant change in mean cycle length at 12 months (0.7 days [SD 4.9]; 95% CI [-0.5, 1.9]). Conclusions There is no evidence for UAE accelerating a deterioration in ovarian function at 1 year, when compared with surgery. UAE is associated with a decrease in the duration of menstrual flow at 1 yea

Characteristics of the Menstrual Cycle After Discontinuation of Oral Contraceptives

Background: Menstrual cycle function may continue to be altered after discontinuation of oral contraceptives (OC). Few studies have been published on the effects of recent OC use on menstrual cycle parameters; none have examined characteristics of the menstrual flow or the quality of cervical mucus. The purpose of this retrospective matched cohort study is to assess biomarkers of the menstrual cycle after discontinuation of OCs. Methods: Among a sample of women who daily recorded observations of menstrual cycle biomarkers, 70 women who had recently discontinued OCs were randomly matched by age and parity with 70 women who had not used OCs for at least 1 year. Outcomes investigated included overall cycle length, length of the luteal phase, estimated day of ovulation, duration of menstrual flow, menstrual intensity, and mucus score. Differences between recent OC users and controls were assessed using random effects modeling. Results: Recent OC users had statistically significantly lower scores for mucus quality for cycles 1 and 2. Additionally, OC users had a later estimated day of ovulation that was statistically significant in cycle 2 and a decreased intensity of menstrual flow that was significant in the first four cycles (difference = −0.48 days). In random effects modeling, all these parameters were significantly different for the first six cycles combined. Conclusions: Menstrual cycle biomarkers are altered for at least two cycles after discontinuation of OCs, and this may help explain the temporary decrease in fecundity associated with recent OC use

Menstrual Cycle Irregularity and Body Mass Index Among Secondary School Students in Sragen, Central Java

BACKGROUND: The Indonesian Health Survey in 2010 reported that 68.3% of women aged 10-59 years old had a regular menstrual cycle in the past one year. Approximately 13.7% of the affected women experienced problem associated with irregular menstrual cycle. Irregular menstrual cycle may cause anxiety, heighten emotional sensitivity, and disturb daily activities in the affected women. Irregular menstrual cycle occurs due to imbalanced sexual hormone. This hormonal imbalance might be worsened by poor nutritional status. This study aimed to estimate the association between irregular menstrual cycle and body mass index. SUBJECT AND METHODS: This was a cross sectional study conducted in Sragen, Central Java. A sample of class IX secondary school (MTs) students in Kalijambe, Sragen, was selected at random for this study. The dependent variable was the menstrual cycle irregularity in the past 3 months. It was measured by a questionnaire. The independent variable was body mass index. The body weight was measured by a weight scale. The body height was measured by micro-toise. The association between study variables was estimated by Spearman correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Fifty percent of the sample had normal body weight, 43.8% were underweight, 6.3% were obese. As much as 12.5% of them had irregular menstrual cycle. There was a very weak and statistically non-significant correlation between body mass index and menstrual cycle irregularity (r=0.08; p=0.183). CONCLUSION: There was a very weak and statistically non-significant correlation between body mass index and menstrual cycle regularity. Keywords: menstrual cycle, regularity, body mass inde