ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0770-5471
Current Organisations
Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital
,
Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest
,
University of Toronto
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.GENM.2011.07.001
Abstract: Estrogens and progestagens (ovarian steroids) not only play an important a role in sexual behavior and reproduction, but they are involved in the development, regulation, and function of all body systems, including aging, sleep, pain, pharmacodynamics, immune response, and cognition. They are essential to the maintenance of cardiovascular, renal, mental, and bone health. Often, their effects are positive and their absence, negative. However, in certain contexts they can promote the development of cancers and neurologic conditions. Finally, ovarian steroids can even affect the response to pharmacologic treatments for many diseases. Given their central role in human biology, it is essential to be able to accurately determine the circulating levels of these hormones. To facilitate such endeavors, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the role of ovarian steroids in normal and abnormal physiology, primarily in women. It discusses the sensitivity, specificity, and precision of the most commonly used assays for estrogens and progestagens: bioassay, immunoassay, and mass spectrophotometry. Ex les of how each of these assays has been used with s les taken from serum, urine, and saliva are provided. Strengths and limitations of each method are discussed.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.GENM.2012.07.003
Abstract: The human menstrual cycle (MC) has historically been the focus of myth and misinformation, leading to ideas that constrain women's activities. We wished to examine one pervasive idea, that the MC is a cause of negative mood, by studying the scientific literature as a whole. We briefly reviewed the history of the idea of premenstrual syndrome and undertook a systematic review of quality studies. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and article bibliographies for published studies using non-help-seeking s les with daily mood data collected prospectively for a minimum of 1 complete MC. We critiqued their methodologies and tabulated the key findings. Of 47 English language studies identified, 18 (38.3%) found no association of mood with any MC phase 18 found an association of negative mood in the premenstrual phase combined with another MC phase and only 7 (14.9%) found an association of negative mood and the premenstrual phase. Finally, the remaining 4 studies (8.5%) showed an association between negative mood and a non-premenstrual phase. Considering the only 41 adequately powered studies, the same phase links were reported by 36.6%, 41.5%, and 13.5% of studies, respectively. Their ersity of methods (s ling, instruments, and cycle phase definitions) precluded a meta-analysis. Taken together, these studies failed to provide clear evidence in support of the existence of a specific premenstrual negative mood syndrome in the general population. This puzzlingly widespread belief needs challenging, as it perpetuates negative concepts linking female reproduction with negative emotionality.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.JAD.2016.08.044
Abstract: Crying, a complex neurobiological behavior with psychosocial and communication features, has been little studied in relationship to the menstrual cycle. In the Mood and Daily Life study (MiDL), a community s le of Canadian women aged 18-43 years, n=76, recorded crying proneness and crying frequency daily for six months along with menstrual cycle phase information. Crying proneness was most likely during the premenstruum, a little less likely during menses and least likely during the mid-cycle phase, with statistically significant differences although the magnitude of these differences were small. By contrast, actual crying did not differ between the three menstrual cycle phases. Oral contraceptive use did not alter the relationship between menstrual cycle phase and either crying variable. A wide range of menstrual cycle phase - crying proneness patterns were seen with visual inspection of the in idual women's line graphs. timing of ovulation was not ascertained. Using a three phase menstrual cycle ision precluded separate late follicular and early luteal data analysis. The s le size was inadequate for a robust statistical test of actual crying. reproductive aged women as a group report feeling more like crying premenstrually but may not actually cry more during this menstrual cycle phase. In idual patterns vary substantially. Oral contraceptive use did not affect these relationships. Suggestions for future research are included.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.SLEEP.2014.12.001
Abstract: This study aimed to assess the temporal relationship of subjective sleep quality to menstrual cycle phase in a community (non help-seeking) s le of adult women over six months. Previous work has produced contradictory results and often used student s les. This was a cohort study, using daily electronic data collection in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada 76 women aged 18-42 years recruited by random digit telephone dialing, recorded mood, sleep quality, and other health variables on a daily basis for 24 weeks. Using linear mixed models, we assessed the relationship between subjective sleep quality and three menstrual cycle phases (menses, premenstrual and midcycle) over 395 cycles. Premenstrual sleep quality was poorer than during the rest of the cycle, with a mean difference of 1.32 between premenstrual and midcycle reference phase, on a 1-100 quality scale (higher score denotes poorer quality). This difference held when the independent variables of daily exercise and physical health were added to the model it became non-significant when perceived stress and later, social support were also added to the model. Sleep quality in adult non-help seeking women is statistically poorer in the premenstruum but the size of the difference is of little clinical significance and was no longer statistically significant with inclusion of the potentially confounding variables, perceived stress and social support.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.SLEEP.2015.06.009
Abstract: Sleep and mood disturbances in women have often been linked to the menstrual cycle, implying an ovarian hormonal causation. However, most studies in this area have used self-reported menstrual cycle phase rather than direct measurement of ovarian hormone concentrations. Further, many studies have focused primarily on peri- and postmenopausal populations reporting clinical sleep difficulty. In this study, we examined the associations among sleep quality, mood, and ovarian hormone concentration in a random s le of community-dwelling, nonclinical women of reproductive age. Our s le consisted of 19 non-help-seeking women aged 18-43 years, each contributing an average of 39.5 nights of data. Over the 42 days of the study, we collected self-reported and actigraphic sleep-quality data, concentrations of urinary estrogen and progesterone metabolites (estrone-3-glucuronide (E1G) and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide [PdG], respectively), and daily mood ratings. Linear-mixed models were used to estimate associations, clustering longitudinal observations by the participant. We found a significant positive association between Sleep Efficiency and E1G, and a significant negative association between Sleep Efficiency and PdG. Otherwise, the self-reported and actigraphic sleep measures were not associated with ovarian hormone concentrations. Self-reported sleep was strongly associated with mood, whereas actigraphic sleep was associated with only two of the 11 in idual mood items, "Feeling on Top of Things" and "Difficulty Coping." In this community s le of women of reproductive age, ovarian hormones play little, if any, role in day-to-day sleep quality. Our findings additionally highlight the different associations that self-reported and actigraphic sleep show with hormones and mood.
Publisher: S. Karger AG
Date: 06-11-2012
DOI: 10.1159/000339370
Abstract: b i Background: /i /b Premenstrual mood symptoms are considered common in women, but such prevailing attitudes are shaped by social expectations about gender, emotionality and hormonal influences. There are few prospective, community studies of women reporting mood data from all phases of the menstrual cycle (MC). We aimed (i) to analyze daily mood data over 6 months for MC phase cyclicity and (ii) to compare MC phase influences on a woman’s daily mood with that attributable to key alternate explanatory variables (physical health, perceived stress and social support). b i Method: /i /b A random s le of Canadian women aged 18–40 years collected mood and health data daily over 6 months, using telemetry, producing 395 complete MCs for analysis. b i Results: /i /b Only half the in idual mood items showed any MC phase association these links were either with the menses phase alone or the menses plus the premenstrual phase. With one exception, the association was not solely premenstrual. The menses-follicular-luteal MC ision gave similar results. Less than 0.5% of the women’s in idual periodogram records for each mood item showed MC entrainment. Physical health, perceived stress and social support were much stronger predictors of mood (p 0.0001 in each case) than MC phase. b i Conclusions: /i /b The results of this study do not support the widespread idea of specific premenstrual dysphoria in women. Daily physical health status, perceived stress and social support explain daily mood better than MC phase.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.YHBEH.2012.08.001
Abstract: Fluctuations in ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle have long been considered a determinant of mood in women. The majority of studies, however, use menstrual cycle phase as proxy for hormone levels. We measured ovarian hormone levels directly in order to examine the relationship between daily hormone levels and mood in non-help-seeking women. Participants (n=19) provided daily information about their positive and negative moods, and collected their first morning-voided urine for 42days, which was analyzed for estrogen and progesterone metabolites (E1G and PdG). The independent contributions of daily E1G, PdG, stress, physical health, and weekly social support, were calculated for 12 daily mood items, and composite measures of positive and negative mood items, using linear mixed models. E1G or PdG contributed to few mood items: E1G measured 2days prior contributed negatively to the model for Motivation, while E1G measured 3days prior contributed negatively to Getting Along with Others, and E1G measured 4days prior contributed negatively to Anxiety. PdG, measured the same day and 1day prior, contributed positively to the models of Irritability, and PdG measured 5days prior contributed positively to Difficulty Coping. By contrast, the variables stress and physical health contributed significantly to all the mood items, as well as both composite positive and negative mood measures. These findings demonstrate that, compared to stress and physical health, ovarian hormones make only a small contribution to daily mood. Thus, fluctuations in ovarian hormones do not contribute significantly to daily mood in healthy women.
Location: Canada
Location: No location found
No related grants have been discovered for Gillian Einstein.