In grade school, it probably got girls out of gym class. It even keeps some from going to school at all. It is the wonderful gift Mother Nature has given women, periods. The United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health shared an interesting topic regarding women’s menstrual cycles. The investigation was based around rotating shift work and menstrual cycle characteristics. Information on shift work and menstrual cycle patterns in the Nurses’ Health Study II was collected from 1993. This consisted of 71,077 nurses from 28-45 who were not on birth control.
This is a study that showed that women whose work shifts change are modestly associated with menstrual function. There are “possible implications for fertility and other cycle related aspects of women’s health.” Women with over twenty months of rotating shifts had more irregular cycles. They were also more likely to have a cycle length less than twenty-one days or greater than 40 days. This is a very wide difference that strays from the average “one month mark.”
Reuters.com has information that agrees with this hypothesis. They have reviewed the facts that involved the NLM, but are still questioning how much of this is relevant for the disturbance in women’s cycles. Lead researcher, Christina C. Lawson of the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says that shift work itself does not directly lead us to believe it disrupts women’s periods. She addresses factors such as age, weight, and exercise levels. She believes that there in more confidence in association so far, but that does not mean it is as simple as cause-and-effect.
Night shifts have been seen to disrupt natural circadian rhythms, which alters blood pressure and hormone production. Although this is an observation made by scientists, they are still unsure of the “exact mechanism”. Melatonin is supposed to be produced during the night while in darkness to help regulate sleep. When people do not sleep or are exposed to light, this could impact their bodies. However, melatonin is not specifically related to reproductive hormones. Overall, I am not sure what could come of this study. It seems as though even with a large group of people, there are varied results. This may go to show that even with thousands and thousands of women in a study, the answer can still be hidden.
other source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
I thought this blog post was extremely interesting because of how much it all made sense. As Taylor said before me, my doctor has said to eat healthy and maintain a normal sleep cycle to help keep my menstrual cycle regular. The same with the group of friends. The people that I spent the majority of the time with were always on the same cycle as me because we were experience the same thing. It makes sense though that you schedule can affect your menstrual cycle and the nurses were the perfect people to test it on. As you said in the blog, it’s not cause and effect but the evidence is much stronger and I’m very intrigued to see what more information arises as more studies are conducted.
I definitely think there is a lot of truth in this blog. I know after taking to my doctor that a healthy diet and sleep schedule are important to keeping your body in check. That includes your menstrual cycle. It’s kind of like how they say a friend group of girls tend to get their period all around the same week because they are experiencing the same types of things. It’s pretty crazy that our bodies are able to adjust like that but its definitely true. With rotating shifts the body never finds a normal to adjust too and instead just keeps trying to restart. With the science you mentioned in your blog it makes a lot of sense to me now. I think comparing it to a nurses schedule is a good way to put it into context even though there are many other third variables that are involved. I think the study of thousands of women needs to include looking at third variables in order to get an accurate reading of whats going on!