Until recently, researchers didn't include women in significant numbers in clinical trials, let alone consider the effects of menstrual cycles on female health.1 Several pieces of history combine to explain this lack of attention, says John M. Johnson, a physiology professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, who studies hormonal effects on body temperature regulation. "One is the overall assumption that reproductive hormones had to do with reproduction, period, until it became obvious that these hormones have global effects." Ironically, he says, past studies relied on men as subjects, and not women, to avoid the confounding aspect of the menstrual cycle. Johnson says that this was why he hadn't considered fluctuating-female hormones as a factor. "Then when we got into it, we found it was really interesting in its own right," he says. Five years ago, his graduate student Nisha Charkoudian, who is now at the ...
The Rhythms that Bind Women
Ask a woman if her period affects her body beyond the reproductive system and she'll probably answer with a resounding yes. This seemingly basic question is now being asked by numerous investigators in various areas of women's health research. From the timing of mammograms to the mind-altering effects of drugs, researchers are now learning that the hormonal swings during a woman's menstrual cycle affect more than just reproduction, like metabolism rates and pain. A woman's menstrual cycle starts
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Karen Young Kreeger
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