Photoplethysmographic study of the vaginal blood pulse

Abstract

The pulse in the upper vaginal blood vessels was recorded by means of a photoelectric cell assembly fitted into a vaginal speculum. In normally ovulating women, cyclic changes were found in the pulse height and shape. The pulse amplitude exhibited 2 peaks: one around ovulation time and the other around the twenty-first day of the cycle. Similar changes were found when various other parameters of the pulse shape were measured and plotted. against the day of the cycle. These curves parallel the curve of the variations of the urinary estrogen excretion during the cycle. Cyclic changes were also found in the digital pulse amplitude of the same women, but not in any of the other parameters of the digital pulse shape. The vaginal pulse of oligomenorrheic, amenorrheic, and climacteric women was usually found to be very small.