Characteristics and control of the normal menstrual cycle.
The most important activity during the follicular phase of the cycle is the secretion of gonadotropins, which control folliculogenesis and influence uterine proliferation. The dominant events of the periovulatory phase are the LH surge and ovulation. The significant change during the luteal phase is the production of a nutritive mucus by the endometrial glands in preparation for an embryonic blastocyst. The cardinal passage of the menstrual phase is the menstrual flow itself. These different events (and the metabolic processes that regulate them) have wide-ranging effects on the integrity of the body. As Havelock Ellis, the eminent English psychologist, stated at the turn of this century, "the omnipresent process of sex, as it is woven into the whole texture of our body, is the pattern of all the process of our life" (source unknown). The sweeping influences of the menstrual cycle illustrate the extent to which the process of reproduction is indeed woven into the whole of the human body.
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Biology Department, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.
Ben Halim
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D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000502:physiology; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*