Athletic activity and hormone concentrations in high school female athletes.

Context: Physical activity may affect the concentrations of circulating endogenous hormones in female athletes. Understanding the relationship between athletic and physical activity and circulating female hormone concentrations is critical.

Objective: To test the hypotheses that (1) the estradiol-progesterone profile of high school adolescent girls participating in training, conditioning, and competition would differ from that of physically inactive, age-matched adolescent girls throughout a 3-month period; and (2) athletic training and conditioning would alter body composition (muscle, bone), leading to an increasingly greater lean-body-mass to fat-body-mass ratio with accompanying hormonal changes.

Changes in bone resorption across the menopause transition: effects of reproductive hormones, body size, and ethnicity.

Objective: Our objective was to characterize changes in bone resorption in relation to the final menstrual period (FMP), reproductive hormones, body mass index (BMI), and ethnicity.

Methods: Urinary type I collagen N-telopeptide (NTX), estradiol, and FSH levels were measured annually for up to 8 years spanning the menopause transition in 918 African American, Chinese, Japanese, or Caucasian women.

Results: Urinary NTX began to increase sharply about 2 years before the FMP, reaching its peak level about 1 to 1.

Associations of testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin with adipose tissue hormones in midlife women.

Objective: Regulators of adipose tissue hormones remain incompletely understood, but may include sex hormones. As adipose tissue hormones have been shown to contribute to numerous metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, understanding their regulation in midlife women is of clinical importance. Therefore, we assessed the associations between testosterone (T) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) with leptin, high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin, and the soluble form of the leptin receptor (sOB-R) in healthy midlife women.

Bone resorption and fracture across the menopausal transition: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: Bone turnover markers (BTMs) predict fracture in older women, whereas data on younger women are lacking. To test the hypothesis that BTMs measured before and after menopause predict fracture risk, we performed a cohort study of 2,305 women.

Methods: Women attended up to nine clinic visits for an average of 7.

The association of menopause status with physical function: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether postmenopause status is associated with self-reported limitations in physical function.

Methods: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation is a multisite, multiethnic, longitudinal study of midlife women. Women aged 45 to 57 years (N = 2,566) completed the physical function scale of the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 on visit 4 (2000-2001).

Hormonal environment affects cognition independent of age during the menopause transition.

Context: Cognitive decline is prevalent in aging populations, and cognitive complaints are common during menopause. However, the extent of hormonal influence is unclear, particularly when considered independent of the aging process.

Objective: We sought to determine differences in cognitive function attributable to menopause, hypothesizing that differences would be associated with reproductive rather than chronological age.

Sources of variability in epidemiological studies of sleep using repeated nights of in-home polysomnography: SWAN Sleep Study.

Study Objective: To quantify sources of night-to-night variability.

Methods: This project was conducted in 285 middle-aged African American, Caucasian, and Chinese women from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Sleep Study living in Chicago, the Detroit area, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. The study used 3 repeated nights of in-home polysomnography (PSG) measures.

Bone mineral density loss in relation to the final menstrual period in a multiethnic cohort: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).

The objective of this study was to describe the time of onset and offset of bone mineral density (BMD) loss relative to the date of the final menstrual period (FMP); the rate and amount of BMD decline during the 5 years before and the 5 years after the FMP; and the independent associations between age at FMP, body mass index (BMI), and race/ethnicity with rates of BMD loss during this time interval. The sample included 242 African American, 384 white, 117 Chinese, and 119 Japanese women, pre- or early perimenopausal at baseline, who had experienced their FMP and for whom an FMP date could be determined. Loess-smoothed curves showed that BMD loss began 1 year before the FMP and decelerated (but did not cease) 2 years after the FMP, at both the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) sites.

Adiposity and the menopausal transition.

This review summarizes the published literature on the potentially circular relationship between adiposity and the menopause. Although data are limited, current information suggests there are substantial effects of obesity and adiposity on the magnitude of hormone changes experienced during the transition, as well as on the risks of chronic disease resulting from the menopause transition. However, evidence regarding the reverse, namely, effects of the menopause transition and its associated hormone changes on weight gain and redistribution of body fat, are inconclusive.

The relationship of birth weight with longitudinal changes in body composition in adult women.

Most research on birth weight and adult health status has reported adult measures at a single time point. This study examined the relationship of self-reported birth weight to longitudinal changes in adult body composition in 587 women of the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study, followed from 1992 to 2007 and aged 24-50 years at baseline. Linear mixed models were used to estimate the association between three birth weight categories and women's 15-year changes in adult weight, height, BMI, waist and hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and fat, lean, and skeletal muscle mass.

Peripheral vascular disease and peripheral neuropathy in individuals with cardiometabolic clustering and obesity: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2004.

Objective: Two lower-extremity diseases (LEDs), including peripheral neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease (PVD), are leading causes of disability in the U.S. Although LEDs can be complications of diabetes, their prevelances and risk factors apart from diabetes are poorly described.

Insulin resistance influences central opioid activity in polycystic ovary syndrome.

This pilot study describes a relationship between insulin resistance and μ-opioid neurotransmission in limbic appetite and mood-regulating regions in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), suggesting that insulin-opioid interactions may contribute to behavioral and reproductive pathologies of PCOS. We found that [1] patients with PCOS who are insulin-resistant (n = 7) had greater limbic μ-opioid receptor availability (nondisplaceable binding potential) than controls (n = 5); [2] receptor availability was correlated with severity of insulin resistance; and [3] receptor availability normalized after insulin-regulating treatment.

Negative attitudes and affect do not predict elective hysterectomy: a prospective analysis from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: Cross-sectional studies suggest an association between hysterectomy and negative affect. Using prospective data, we examined the associations of negative affect, attitudes toward aging and menopause, premenstrual symptoms, and vasomotor symptoms with elective hysterectomy in midlife.

Methods: Data were from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, a multisite, community-based prospective cohort study of the menopausal transition (n = 2,818).

Change in follicle-stimulating hormone and estradiol across the menopausal transition: effect of age at the final menstrual period.

Background And Objective: To determine whether patterns of change in serum estradiol (E2) and FSH across the menopausal transition were associated with age at the final menstrual period (FMP).

Design And Setting: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) is a seven-site, multiethnic, longitudinal study of the menopausal transition being conducted in 3302 menstruating women who were aged 42-52 yr at the 1996 study baseline.

Measurements: Annually collected serum was assayed for E2 and FSH levels.

Are inflammatory and coagulation biomarkers related to sleep characteristics in mid-life women?: Study of Women's Health across the Nation sleep study.

Study Objectives: Inflammation and pro-coagulation biomarkers may be a link between sleep characteristics and risk for cardiometabolic disorders. We tested the hypothesis that worse sleep characteristics would be associated with C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, factor VIIc, and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1 in a multi-ethnic subsample of mid-life women enrolled in the Study of Women's Health across the Nation.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Vitamin D and subsequent systolic hypertension among women.

Background: We examined data from a cohort of Caucasian women for evidence of an association between serum vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)) insufficiency and greater risk of systolic hypertension in the population-based longitudinal Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study (MBHMS).

Methods: The cohort includes 559 women aged 24-44 years in 1992; annual blood pressure (BP) measurements and data collection began in 1992 and is ongoing. A single-time serum 25(OH)D level was measured in 1993.

Longitudinal, epidemiologic studies of female reproductive aging.

Human female reproductive aging consists of multiple processes and interacts with other physiological systems in unique ways. Here we discuss eight recent longitudinal, epidemiologic studies of female reproductive aging that include endocrine data to highlight their contributions to our understanding of these various aging processes and their interactions. Specifically, we review data on ovarian and nonovarian reproductive aging processes and reproductive staging.

Relating smoking, obesity, insulin resistance, and ovarian biomarker changes to the final menstrual period.

To determine if smoking, obesity, and insulin resistance mediated age at final menstrual period (FMP), we examined anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), inhibin B, and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) as biomarkers of changing follicle status and ovarian aging. We performed a longitudinal data analysis from a cohort of premenopausal women followed to their FMP. Our results found that smokers had an earlier age at FMP (P < 0.

Cardiovascular disease risk of abdominal obesity vs. metabolic abnormalities.

It remains unclear whether abdominal obesity increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk independent of the metabolic abnormalities that often accompany it. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the independent effects of abdominal obesity vs. metabolic syndrome and diabetes on the risk for incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.

Nutritional factors that influence change in bone density and stress fracture risk among young female cross-country runners.

Objective: To identify nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns associated with stress fracture risk and changes in bone density among young female distance runners.

Design And Setting: Two-year, prospective cohort study. Observational data were collected in the course of a multicenter randomized trial of the effect of oral contraceptives on bone health.

Physical functioning among mid-life women: associations with trajectory of depressive symptoms.

During midlife, physical functioning limitations emerge and depressive symptoms are highly prevalent. We examined the relationship between physical functioning and depressive symptoms in the Michigan Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) cohort of mid-life women (n = 377). Seven performance-based physical functioning measures quantifying strength, balance, coordination, flexibility and range of motion and perceived physical functioning, assessed with the SF-36 physical functioning sub-score, were included.

Marital/cohabitation status and history in relation to sleep in midlife women.

Study Objectives: To examine whether current and/or history of marital/cohabitation status are associated with sleep, independent of demographic and general health risk factors.

Design: Longitudinal, observational study of women, with sleep measured via multi-night in-home polysomnography and up to 35 nights of actigraphy.

Setting: Participants' homes.