title: Menstrual Cycle Hormone Changes in Women Traversing Menopause: Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.
abstract: Menstrual cycle hormone patterns in women approaching menopause are inadequately studied.
  
  
  
  To describe day-to-day menstrual cycle hormones in women as they approach menopause from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Daily Hormone Study (DHS).
  
  
  
  DHS enrollees collected daily urine for one entire menstrual cycle or up to 50 days, whichever came first, annually, up to the final menstrual period (FMP) or for up to 10 years.
  
  
  
  Seven sites across the United States.
  
  
  
  A total of 511 premenopausal or early perimenopausal women at enrollment, within 10 years before menopause.
  
  
  
  Time-to-FMP measurement.
  
  
  
  Evidence of luteal activity (ELA), determined using objective algorithms. Menstrual cycle/segment length; whole cycle, and segment integrated urinary luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estrone conjugates, and pregnanediol glucuronide (Pdg) for each year, organized around the FMP.
  
  
  
  Mean menstrual cycle length was remarkably preserved at 26 to 27 days in ELA cycles; non-ELA cycles had greater variability. The percentage of cycles that were ELA remained high until 5 years before the FMP (87.9%); only 22.8% of cycles within 1 year of the FMP were ELA. Whole cycle hormones remained relatively stable up to 3 years before the FMP, when gonadotropins began to increase. Pdg excretion declined slowly with progress to the FMP, but Pdg patterns of ELA cycles remained distinguishable from non-ELA.
  
  
  
  Menstrual cycle hormone patterns in perimenopausal women resemble those of midreproductive-aged women until 5 years before menopause, and presumably ovulatory cycles retain a potentially fertile pattern up to the end of reproductive life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ob/Gyn, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado 80045.
authors.forename: Nanette
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01655.
authors.forename: Sybil L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Samar R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: El Khoudary
authors.affiliation: Department of Ob/Gyn, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado 80045.|Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Aurora, Colorado 80045.
authors.forename: Amanda A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Allshouse
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114.
authors.forename: Sherri-Ann
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Burnett-Bowie
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Epidemiology & Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Derby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Preventive Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612.
authors.forename: Howard M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Kravitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-5624.
authors.forename: Sioban D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Harlow
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, California 90095.
authors.forename: Gail A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Greendale
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis Health, Davis, California 95817.
authors.forename: Ellen B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and Preventive Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612.
authors.forename: Rasa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kazlauskaite
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-5624.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McConnell
authors.affiliation: University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195.
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Neal-Perry
authors.affiliation: Departments of Neurology and Epidemiology & Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, New York 10461.
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pavlovic
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-5624.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Randolph
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103.
authors.forename: Gerson
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213.
authors.forename: Hsiang-Yu
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis Health, Davis, California 95817.
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lasley
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D044466:Asian People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003338:Corpus Luteum / Q000502:physiology; D004958:Estradiol / Q000378:metabolism; D004970:Estrone / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D047648:Perimenopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011276:Pregnanediol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D017697:Premenopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism; D044465:White People; D016387:Women's Health
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; C022270:pregnanediol-3 alpha-glucuronide; D004970:Estrone; D004958:Estradiol; D007986:Luteinizing Hormone; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone; D011276:Pregnanediol