title: Technique for locating the start of the ovarian cycle in women who have no uterus.
abstract: A technique was required to identify the start of the ovarian cycle in hysterectomized women. Daily observations of the excretion of pregnanediol relative to creatinine by menstruant women during the course of 15 ovulatory cycles have been used to establish (a) that the centre of the pregnanediol peak can be located from as few as two pregnanediol measurements per week and (b) that this centre precedes the start of menstruation by 7.14 +/- 0.07 days (mean +/- SEM). With this information the onset of menstrual bleeding in an ovulatory cycle can be predicted. Comparison of the prediction with the observation of menstrual onset in 50 cycles gave a mean deviation of 0.276 +/- 0.109 days with a maximum deviation of 1.9 days. In three women observed before and after hysterectomy there was no significant change in the length of the ovarian cycle. It is concluded that this procedure provides a way of identifying the start of a new ovarian cycle in women who have no uterus. The procedure is only applicable to ovulatory cycles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Princess Margaret Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Metcalf
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Livesey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003404:Creatinine / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy; D008183:Luteal Phase; D008597:Menstrual Cycle; D008598:Menstruation; D008722:Methods; D011276:Pregnanediol / Q000652:urine*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine; D011276:Pregnanediol