menstrual cycle Tag

28 Sep

Posted at 11:07h in Fertility

Notice: This post is provided for background information only. Consult your healthcare provider for specific medical advice regarding ovulation, fertility, or any reproductive health concern.

Understanding the menstrual cycle is especially important for women planning a pregnancy. One key stage to monitor is ovulation — the point in the cycle when an ovary releases an egg. Knowing approximately when ovulation occurs can help identify the days when conception is more likely and provide a clearer picture of an individual's menstrual pattern. However, ovulation does not necessarily occur on the same calendar day every month. Cycle length can vary, and factors such as stress, illness, medications, and routine changes may affect timing. According to the NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development), menstrual cycle length and ovulation timing can vary considerably from person to person and from month to month, which is why tracking several signs rather than relying on a single calculation provides more useful information.

[caption id="attachment_76272" align="aligncenter" width="500"]ovulation-tracker-pexels Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich[/caption]

10 Mar

Posted at 16:51h in Author Interviews, Fertility
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Julia Stern (Jünger) Georg-August-University Göttingen Georg-Elias-Müller-Institute of Psychology Biological Personality Psychology Göttingen  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The main background for this study was the Good Genes Ovulatory Shift Hypothesis. This Hypothesis is quite famous in evolutionary social sciences. It claims that women’s mate preferences should shift across their ovulatory cycle, regulated by changing hormone levels (mainly estradiol and progesterone). More precisely, when fertile, women should be sexually attracted to men who displayed assumed indicators of genetic quality, e.g. dominant behavior, whereas when not fertile, women should prefer to mate with potential long-term partners. This Hypothesis has received criticism in the recent years, because of studies not finding any evidence for it, studies with positive evidence were criticized for methodological problems, and studies claiming that previously presumed indicators of good genes do not really display good genes at all. All this criticism led to a debate about the existence of mate preference shifts across women’s ovulatory cycle. My colleagues and I wanted to contribute to this debate by conducting a large study with strong research methods.