Choosing whether or not to use menopausal hormone therapy is one of the most com­plicated health decisions women must make. Few medical topics are in such a state of flux and controversy as hormone therapy for menopause. The most contradictory and confusing concerns about HT relate to heart disease and breast cancer. Regarding heart disease, […]

Bioidentical hormones have the same molecular structure as hormones produced by the human body. Both pharmaceutical companies and compounding pharma­cies (pharmacies that mix hormones for individual patients) make bioidentical hor­mones, but compounding pharmacies can vary amounts and ratios of hormones for each individual based on the physician’s prescription (Vogel, 2006). Opponents voice concern about the […]

Hormone therapy (HT)* for women involves using supplemental hormones—estrogen, progesterone, and/or testosterone—to alleviate problems that can arise from the decrease in natural hormone production that occurs during the female climacteric. Also, younger women with hormone deficiencies following removal of their ovaries often use HT. ■ Table 3.1 summarizes some of the benefits and risks of […]

Besides discomfort or pain, another fairly common menstrual difficulty is amenor­rhea (ay-meh-nuh-REE-uh), the absence of menstruation. Two types of amenorrhea exist: primary and secondary. Primary amenorrhea is the failure to begin to menstru­ate at puberty. It can be caused by problems with the reproductive organs, hormonal imbalances, poor health, or an imperforate hymen. Secondary amenorrhea […]

Painful menstruation is called dysmenorrhea (dis-meh-nuh-REE-uh). Primary dysmen­orrhea occurs during menstruation and is usually caused by the overproduction of pros­taglandins, chemicals that cause the muscles of the uterus to contract. Problems with primary dysmenorrhea usually appear with the onset of menstruation at adolescence. One study found that 67% of adolescents experienced some degree of dysmenorrhea […]

A number of studies have tried to determine whether sexual interest is affected by the menstrual cycle. Studies found that women responded emotionally more posi­tively to erotic imagery prior to and during ovulation (Mass et al., 2009; Rudski et al., 2011), expressed a greater desire to engage in sexual activity with men (Gangestad et al., […]

During the secretory phase continued pituitary secretions of LH cause the cells of the ruptured follicle to develop into a yellowish bump called the corpus luteum. The cor­pus luteum secretes progesterone, which inhibits the production of the cervical mucus during ovulation. Together with estrogen produced by the ovaries, progesterone causes the endometrium to thicken and […]

During the proliferative phase the pituitary gland increases production of FSH, which stimulates the developing follicles to mature and to produce several types of estrogen. Estrogen in turn causes the endometrium to thicken. Although several follicles begin to mature, usually only one reaches maturity; the other follicles degenerate. When the level of ovarian estrogen circulating […]

The menstrual cycle is regulated by intricate relationships between the hypothalamus and various endocrine glands, including the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands, and the ovaries and uterus. The hypothalamus monitors hormone levels in the bloodstream throughout the cycle, releasing chemicals that stimulate the pituitary to produce two hormones that affect the ovaries: follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) […]

During the menstrual cycle the uterine lining is prepared for the implantation of a fertil­ized ovum. If conception does not occur, the lining sloughs off and is discharged as men­strual flow. The length of the menstrual cycle is usually measured from the beginning of the first day of flow to the day before the next […]