title: The luteal heat cycle of the breast in health.
abstract: Wearing a special thermometric brassiere, twenty-five normal women self-measured their breast surface temperature. The subjects averaged 39 years of age and all were parous. Observations were made for one hour each evening for one menstrual cycle under semi-standardized domestic conditions. They also collected daily samples of saliva for radioimmunoassay of progesterone concentration. The surface temperature of the breast is relatively cold around mid-cycle; thereafter, and without interruption in averaged data, the temperature increases steadily by about 1 degree C over the 12 days of the luteal phase; around the time of the menses, it falls rapidly. This heat rhythm does not occur in peri-menopausal low progesterone menstrual cycles or in patients where the breast tissue has been irradiated for cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: University Division of Pathology, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McArdle
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Pauson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hume
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turkes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001831:Body Temperature; D001940:Breast / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008183:Luteal Phase