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Medicine and Science in Sports and... Nov 2013Sports medicine professionals commonly describe two functionally different units of the vastus medialis (VM), the VM, and the vastus medialis oblique (VMO), but the...
PURPOSE
Sports medicine professionals commonly describe two functionally different units of the vastus medialis (VM), the VM, and the vastus medialis oblique (VMO), but the anatomical support is equivocal. The functional difference of the VMO is principle to rehabilitation programs designed to alleviate anterior knee pain, a pathology that is known to have a greater occurrence in women. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the motor units of the VM and VMO are differentially recruited and if this recruitment pattern has an effect of sex or menstrual cycle phase.
METHODS
Single motor unit recordings from the VM and VMO were obtained for men and women during an isometric ramp knee extension. Eleven men were tested once. Seven women were tested during five different phases of the menstrual cycle, determined by basal body temperature mapping. The recruitment threshold and the initial firing rate at recruitment were determined from 510 motor unit recordings.
RESULTS
The initial firing rate was lower in the VMO than that in the VM in women (P < 0.001) but not in men. There was no difference in recruitment thresholds for the VM and VMO in either sex or across the menstrual cycle. There was a main effect of menstrual phase on initial firing rate, showing increases from the early follicular to late luteal phase (P = 0.003). The initial firing rate in the VMO was lower than that in the VM during ovulatory (P = 0.009) and midluteal (P = 0.009) phases.
CONCLUSION
The relative control of the VM and VMO changes across the menstrual cycle. This could influence patellar pathologies that have a higher incidence in women.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Isometric Contraction; Luteal Phase; Male; Menstrual Cycle; Quadriceps Muscle; Recruitment, Neurophysiological; Sex Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 23657168
DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e318299a69d -
Psychoneuroendocrinology Jan 2023Particular phases of the menstrual cycle may exacerbate affective symptoms for females with a diagnosed mental health disorder. However, there are mixed findings...
Particular phases of the menstrual cycle may exacerbate affective symptoms for females with a diagnosed mental health disorder. However, there are mixed findings regarding whether affective symptoms change across the menstrual cycle in females without a clinical diagnosis. The window of vulnerability model proposes that natural increases in ovarian hormones in the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle lead to systematic changes in brain networks associated with affective processing. Consequently, the model posits that females may experience stress more intensely and remember negative events more readily in the mid-luteal phase, increasing their risk for higher affective symptoms. Using a 35-day longitudinal study design, we tested the window of vulnerability model in a non-clinical sample. We tracked naturally cycling females' daily stress and three types of affective symptoms: anxious apprehension, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression. Using multilevel modeling, we simultaneously modeled within- and between-person associations among stress and menstrual phase for each affective symptom. We found increased anhedonic depression in the mid-luteal phase but not anxious apprehension or anxious arousal. Moreover, we detected a positive association between within- and between-person stress and anxious apprehension and anhedonic depression, but not anxious arousal. These associations were not stronger in the mid-luteal phase. Overall, we provide weak evidence for a window of vulnerability for affective symptoms in the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Our findings suggest that stress is a better predictor of fluctuations in affective symptoms than the menstrual cycle. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of measuring multiple negative affective symptoms because they may be differentially related to stress and the menstrual cycle.
Topics: Female; Humans; Luteal Phase; Affective Symptoms; Longitudinal Studies; Progesterone; Menstrual Cycle; Estradiol
PubMed: 36332274
DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105958 -
Psychoneuroendocrinology May 2019The menstrual cycle is known to impact mood and cognitive function and has been shown to lead to variability in symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorders and anxiety....
The menstrual cycle is known to impact mood and cognitive function and has been shown to lead to variability in symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorders and anxiety. Using a within-subject design, the present study examined ovarian hormones, the error-related negativity (ERN), and self-reported checking symptoms in both the mid-follicular and mid-luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. ERN amplitude and checking symptom severity did not vary between the follicular and luteal phases. However, a more negative ERN was associated with greater checking symptoms in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, even when controlling for ERN amplitude in the follicular phase. Moreover, changes in checking symptoms between phases were associated with phase-related changes in the ERN. Finally, a significant mediation model was found such that the ERN measured in the luteal phase mediated the association between progesterone in the luteal phase and checking symptoms in the luteal phase. Collectively, the present findings suggest that levels of progesterone in the luteal phase could impact checking symptoms by modulating response monitoring and sensitivity to errors, and that fluctuation in the ERN between menstrual cycle phases may play an important role in the expression of anxious and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Topics: Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Electroencephalography; Emotions; Estradiol; Evoked Potentials; Female; Follicular Phase; Humans; Luteal Phase; Menstrual Cycle; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Progesterone; Young Adult
PubMed: 30721837
DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.01.027 -
Aggressive Behavior Mar 2020Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by rapidly shifting symptoms, including intense anger and aggressive behavior. Understanding how fluctuations in...
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by rapidly shifting symptoms, including intense anger and aggressive behavior. Understanding how fluctuations in ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle may contribute to symptom instability is key for accurate assessment of BPD symptoms and effective interventions. Reactive and proactive aggression, as well as anger-in and anger-out, were assessed daily in 15 physically healthy, unmedicated naturally cycling female individuals meeting criteria for BPD across 35 days. Urine luteinizing hormone surge and salivary progesterone were used to confirm ovulation and verify the cycle phase. Multilevel models evaluated cyclical differences of symptoms between cycle phases. Both forms of aggressive behavior demonstrated marked cycle effects, with reactive aggression highest during the midluteal cycle phase, co-occurring with initial increases in anger and irritability and followed by perimenstrual peaks in anger and anger-in. In contrast, highest levels of proactive aggression were observed during the follicular and ovulatory phases, when emotional symptoms and anger were otherwise at lowest levels. These findings highlight the importance of identifying the function of aggression when considering potential psychological and biological influences. Naturally cycling individuals with BPD may be at elevated risk for luteal worsening of a range of interpersonally reactive symptoms, including reactive aggression, whereas proactive aggression may occur more in phases characterized by less emotional and cognitive vulnerability and greater reward sensitivity. Research on aggression in this population should consider cycle effects. Cycling individuals with BPD attempting to reduce aggressive behavior may benefit from cycle-tracking to increase awareness of these effects and to develop appropriate strategies.
Topics: Adult; Aggression; Anger; Borderline Personality Disorder; Emotions; Female; Humans; Menstrual Cycle
PubMed: 31957896
DOI: 10.1002/ab.21877 -
European Journal of Applied Physiology Nov 2022
Topics: Female; Humans; Menstrual Cycle; Sports
PubMed: 35918557
DOI: 10.1007/s00421-022-05015-0 -
Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews : PER Jan 2006Attention to pubertal development and menstrual health is an important aspect of primary care for adolescents. Textbooks may not provide sufficient evidence-based... (Review)
Review
Attention to pubertal development and menstrual health is an important aspect of primary care for adolescents. Textbooks may not provide sufficient evidence-based guidance to facilitate the early detection of gynecologic disease states and conditions. Conversely, the typical guidelines for pubertal development may lead to over-evaluation of normal girls. Chaotically irregular and unpredictable bleeding is NOT the norm during adolescence. On the contrary, although many early menstrual cycles are anovulatory, most adolescents have menstrual cycles that fall within the parameters of 21-45 days. Adolescents with menstrual bleeding that is less frequent than every 45 days, is prolonged > 7 days, or is excessively heavy should be evaluated in order to detect conditions such as eating disorders, polycystic ovary syndrome, and von Willebrand disease. Clinicians who attend to adolescent menstrual cycles can help set the stage for future health.
Topics: Adolescent; Female; Humans; Menstrual Cycle; Patient Education as Topic; Physician-Patient Relations
PubMed: 16641848
DOI: No ID Found -
Impact of menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptives on sleep and overnight memory consolidation.Journal of Sleep Research Aug 2021Sleep spindles benefit declarative memory consolidation and are considered to be a biological marker for general cognitive abilities. However, the impact of sexual...
Sleep spindles benefit declarative memory consolidation and are considered to be a biological marker for general cognitive abilities. However, the impact of sexual hormones and hormonal oral contraceptives (OCs) on these relationships are less clear. Thus, we here investigated the influence of endogenous progesterone levels of naturally cycling women and women using OCs on nocturnal sleep and overnight memory consolidation. Nineteen healthy women using OCs (M = 21.4, SD = 2.1 years) were compared to 43 healthy women with a natural menstrual cycle (follicular phase: n = 16, M = 21.4, SD = 3.1 years; luteal phase: n = 27, M = 22.5, SD = 3.6 years). Sleep spindle density and salivary progesterone were measured during an adaptation and an experimental night. A word pair association task preceding the experimental night followed by two recalls (pre-sleep and post-sleep) was performed to test declarative memory performance. We found that memory performance improved overnight in all women. Interestingly, women using OCs (characterized by a low endogenous progesterone level but with very potent synthetic progestins) and naturally cycling women during the luteal phase (characterized by a high endogenous progesterone level) had a higher fast sleep spindle density compared to naturally cycling women during the follicular phase (characterized by a low endogenous progesterone level). Furthermore, we observed a positive correlation between endogenous progesterone level and fast spindle density in women during the luteal phase. Results suggest that the use of OCs and the menstrual cycle phase affects sleep spindles and therefore should be considered in further studies investigating sleep spindles and cognitive performance.
Topics: Contraceptives, Oral; Female; Humans; Memory Consolidation; Menstrual Cycle; Mental Recall; Sleep; Young Adult
PubMed: 33348471
DOI: 10.1111/jsr.13239 -
Psychoneuroendocrinology Jun 2019Changes that occur during the menstrual cycle affect various aspects of behavior, cognition, and emotion. Here, we focused on potential differences between early...
Changes that occur during the menstrual cycle affect various aspects of behavior, cognition, and emotion. Here, we focused on potential differences between early follicular and midluteal phases in the way women process images of behaviorally relevant content categories: children, threat, disgust, erotic scenes, low- and high-calorie food. Using eye-tracking, we examined women's engagement of attention in the key region of each image in a free-viewing condition. Specifically, we tested how quickly attention was attracted to these regions and for how long it was held there. Participants took part in two experimental sessions, one in the early follicular and one in the midluteal phase. The results showed that in the midluteal phase attention was attracted to the key region earlier than in the early follicular phase: the first fixation more often fell within the key region and there were fewer fixations preceding it. While the effect of the phase in terms of the capture of attention did not depend on the image category, the effect regarding the hold of attention was category-specific, concerning the disgust category only. Specifically, in the midluteal phase the duration of the exploration of the key region between reaching it for the first time and first exiting it was shorter, which might be due to heightened sensitivity to disgusting stimuli in this period. Overall, our results indicate the occurrence of changes in attentional processing of emotional scenes related to the menstrual cycle, which seem to differ depending on the aspect of attention deployment: in the midluteal phase the effect of enhancing orienting was general and concerned any important visual information, whereas the effect of the shortened hold of attention appeared to be limited to specific content.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Cognition; Emotions; Estradiol; Female; Follicular Phase; Humans; Luteal Phase; Menstrual Cycle; Progesterone
PubMed: 30784902
DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.02.009 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2023The relationship between the menstrual cycle and the oral microbiome has not been clarified. The purpose of this study was to assess potential changes in the oral...
The relationship between the menstrual cycle and the oral microbiome has not been clarified. The purpose of this study was to assess potential changes in the oral microbiome of healthy young adults using 16S rRNA-based sequencing. Eleven females (aged 23-36 years) with stable menstrual cycles and without any oral problems were recruited. Saliva samples were collected before brushing every morning during the menstrual period. Based on basal body temperatures, menstrual cycles were divided into four phases, namely the menstrual, follicular, early luteal, and late luteal phases. Our results showed that the follicular phase had a significantly higher abundance ratio of the genus than the early and late luteal phases, whereas the abundance ratios of the 7 and 6 genera were significantly lower in the follicular phase than those in the early and late luteal phases and that in the early luteal phase, respectively. Alpha diversity by the Simpson index was significantly lower in the follicular phase than that in the early luteal phase, and beta diversity showed significant differences among the four phases. Using the relative abundance data and copy numbers of the 16S rRNA genes in the samples, the bacterial amounts in the four phases were compared, and we observed that the follicular phase had significantly lower amounts of the and 6 genera than the menstrual and early luteal phase, respectively. These results indicate reciprocal changes with the genus and genera, particularly in the follicular phase. In the present study, we showed that the oral microbiome profiles are affected by the menstrual cycles of healthy young adult females.
Topics: Young Adult; Female; Humans; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Menstrual Cycle; Follicular Phase; Luteal Phase
PubMed: 37065196
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1119602 -
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Oct 2008The hormones progesterone and estrogen and, more precisely, their sophisticated interdependent fluctuations over the course of the female human lifespan, have long been... (Review)
Review
The hormones progesterone and estrogen and, more precisely, their sophisticated interdependent fluctuations over the course of the female human lifespan, have long been known to play a dominant role in the physiological development and homeostasis of the human female. What is only recently coming to light, however, is that the fluctuation of these two hormones also plays a crucial role in neurological and psychological development and function which impacts brain function, cognition, emotional status, sensory processing, appetite, and more. The ability of reproductive hormones to impact psychoneurological processes involves the interplay of several body systems, lending credibility to the view of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) as a disorder founded in real biochemical disturbances. The effects of the menstrual cycle on cognitive, emotional, and sensory function in the female of childbearing age are reviewed. In addition, recent evidence is discussed which confirms the biological basis of PMS as a real disorder of primarily autoimmune origin.
Topics: Cognition; Emotions; Female; Humans; Menstrual Cycle; Premenstrual Syndrome; Sensation
PubMed: 18592262
DOI: 10.1007/s00404-008-0708-2