The menstrual cycle and adolescent health.

Early reproductive characteristics, including menarcheal age, may have significant effects on later health outcomes. While early exposure to ovarian hormones may influence the risk for certain diseases, the degree to which this exposure is mediated by other factors is not well understood. Research on secular trends in age at menarche and subsequent outcomes in women's health across the lifespan can help to clarify the importance of age at menarche.

Association between psychological stress and menstrual cycle characteristics in perimenopausal women.

In previous studies of the relationship between stress and menstrual cycles, stress has been found to be associated with longer cycles, to be associated with shorter cycles, and to have no association with cycle length. Some of the menstrual cycle changes that have been attributed to stress are similar to those experienced by women during perimenopause. In an effort to see whether an association between psychological stress and menstrual cycle characteristics can be detected in women approaching menopause, this study examines this relationship in perimenopausal women who are participants in the Tremin Research Program on Women's Health.

Staging the menopausal transition: data from the TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health.

The present study was conducted to test the assumptions of a staging system of reproductive aging that was proposed at the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (STRAW) in 2001. Using longitudinal data provided by 100 women over a period of 3-12 years, we asked whether midlife women move in a uniform progression from pre- to peri- to postmenopause, as refuted by earlier studies but proposed by the STRAW model, or whether they differ from this assumed pattern. Participants were recruited from the TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health, the oldest ongoing study of menstruation and women's health in the world.