Process Of Menstruation Research Articles

Student learning and the menstrual cycle: Myths and realities

ABSTRACT Female students are rapidly approaching equal representation in higher education at the level of first-degree courses. Most of these women are regularly affected by the cyclical process of ovulation and menstruation. It is often assumed that female students show variations in intellectual performance through the menstrual cycle, and women themselves report poor performance during the premenstrual and menstrual phases of the cycle. In principle, this would have implications for both assessment and tutoring procedures in institutions of higher education. However, the available research evidence indicates that the process of menstruation has no effect at all upon academic performance when measured by quantitative tests or examinations, and that subjective complaints of paramenstrual dysfunction originate in socially mediated beliefs rather than in any objective impairment. This itself has a number of important consequences for institutions of higher education and for research into student learning.

The microbial content and morphological character of the normal bovine uterus and oviduct

The genitalia of a control series of nineteen animals, slaughtered for other reasons than reproductive failure, were studied. Of these six were in various stages of pregnancy, one was in a ‘proliferative phase’, being slaughtered probably just before the first oestrus after calving, and twelve represented different phases of the oestrous cycle, more than half exemplifying the last 4 days before heat. Stages were judged from the appearance of the ovaries, and checked in five instances by repeated rectal examinations, and observation of behaviour during life. Of the nineteen uteri eight yielded bacteria on culture, sometimes in moderately high density; from two of them, pure cultures were recovered respectively of Pseudomonas and Neisseria catarrhalis; and in another, probably Proteus was found. No previous records of these three genera at such a site have been found. Only aerobic blood agar plate cultures, and those for tuberculosis organisms were made. Dissection results unequivocally supported the view of Tagliavini in opposition to that taken by Hammond, that the sanguineous elements in post-oestral discharge originated from endometrial extravasation. The cow slaughtered 4 days after heat indicated that congestion disappears from the caruncles before leaving the areas between them. Microscopically, no mast cells, as observed by the Italian workers, could be seen; it appeared that a ‘proliferative phase’ occurs in every cycle during the three pre-oestral days, when gland tissue proliferates from its nadir of development, surface epithelium grows in height, and vascularization progresses. The rate and interrelations of these changes seemed variable. Arterioles appeared to be withdrawn from the superficial mucosa during the secretory phase. Tagliavini's claim to have observed sloughing of epithelium about the 17th day, strictly equivalent to the process of menstruation in the Primates, must on the evidence be regarded with considerable reserve.

NORMAL RHYTHM OF WHITE BLOOD CELLS IN WOMEN

This study was made to determine whether or not the physiologic process of menstruation may influence the regular daily rhythm of the white blood cells, which has been shown to exist independently of other physiologic factors such as digestion and ordinary exercise (Sabin, Cunningham, Doan and Kindwall,11925, and Shaw,21927). The results obtained by these authors in regard to the effect of digestion were confirmed, and it was further found that menstruation does not appreciably affect the rhythm of the white blood cells, although there is a lymphocytic and leukocytic infiltration of the endometrium preceding the onset of menstruation (Novak and Te Linde,31924). This is taken as indicating that this rhythm is an essential characteristic of the white blood cells and is one phase of the fundamental rhythmicity of the vital activities of the body. In the course of this investigation, it was found that a type of