CeMCOR Holiday Newsletter
Greetings this Holiday Season from all on the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR) team!
This year has brought CeMCOR, and all who have interacted with us, lots of new chaos (COVID-19 vaccinations, Delta/Omicron, heat domes and atmospheric rivers), plus lots familiar from 2020—difficult, isolating, and frustrating lives!
The Menstrual cycle and Ovulation Study (MOS2) despite needing three different leaders and starting during the pandemic, managed to collect data over 1.2 menstrual cycles for 125 enrolled women. They recorded daily Menstrual Cycle Diary© and Quantitative Basal Temperature© data, weekly urines, and 3 saliva samples. The urines went to Health Canada for study of environmental contami-nants for comparison with data from MOS, an identically designed study from 2006-8 we performed (400+ with complete data). We had to begin MOS2 remotely (mailed materials) doing everything via emails, calls and lots of Zoom meetings.
Since September’s study end, we have learned that MOS and MOS2 participants were similar in cycle length and body weight. However, ovulation in MOS2 was markedly disrupted!Stay tuned—this invisible change appears related to the multiple stresses of the pandemic—we hope to publish this spring.
We earned a grant from the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) for an innovative therapy study for women living with androgenic Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). After many delays, we began local recruitment in November. We are breaking new and important ground with 40 women, each her own control, studied over six-months while taking cyclic progesterone and spironolactone.
We also celebrated publication of a paper describing the interest in sex of 61 healthy premenopausal women over 1-year of ovulatory cycles. Allison Macbeth, a sex/cycle educator, began as a CeMCOR volunteer in 2013, presented results at the Endocrine Society in 2014, and 8 submissions later, finally published them in Women’s Reproductive Health this year. Why delays? Our data did not confirm a pre-ovulatory sexiness most reviewers expected—instead we found that women’s interest in sex related to feelings of self-worth and energy. Click here to read.
Finally, we celebrate several new, young CeMCOR investigators—reviewing progesterone therapy for PCOS, an internet survey of women’s attitudes toward PCOS therapy, and MOS2 measurement of the breast’s areolar diameter in 70+ women. We are also proud of CeMCOR Scientific Advisory Council members, Lori Brotto PhD, psychologist, UBC Ob-Gyn Professor, and head of WHRI, for winning the UBC Excellence in Mentoring Early Career Faculty award; and Helena Teede, MD, PhD, Monash University Endocrinology Professor for the Endocrine Society’s Outstanding Leadership award and being inducted a Member of the Order of Australia.
CeMCOR sees hope ahead. Wishing you a relaxing/refreshing and healthful time with loved ones.
