"Hypothalamic" menstrual cycle and ovulation disturbances are reversible, protective and thus are not diseases. They may become quite chronic and difficult to both diagnose and treat, however. It is also very important to rule out true diseases that may appear the same (like a pituitary prolactinoma). Regular cycles in women who are having trouble becoming pregnant may mask chronic silent ovulatory disturbances. We now know that intermittent silent ovulatory disturbances occur in at least a third of all regular, normal-length, spontaneous cycles in population. We also know that untreated silent ovulatory disturbances lead to important bone loss (at the rate of 0.86% of spinal bone loss/year).
This talk will share the evidence-based data and Dr. Prior's clinical experience with this category of adaptive reproductive change.
Learning Objectives:
1. How can I assess abnormal cycles and ovulatory disturbances to learn their unique “Why?”
2. What’s the most effective way to engage a woman in her own healing?
3. How can we preserve bone strength and hormonal balance while cycles and ovulation recover?
Jerilynn C. Prior BA, MD, FRCPC is a Professor of Endocrinology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. She studies menstrual cycles and the effects of the cycle’s changing estrogen and progesterone (ovulation) levels on women’s health. She is the founder (2002) and Scientific Director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (www.CeMCOR.ca--3500-7000 page-views/d. She is also Director of the BC Centre of the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (www.camos.org) that studies bone health and incident fracture over almost 20 years in population-based women and men. Dr. Prior is known for innovative research showing: 1) perimenopause is a time of higher and erratic estrogen/lower progesterone levels and paradoxical bone loss (Prior Estrogen’s Storm Season—stories of perimenopause); 2) normally ovulatory cycles are necessary to prevent bone loss—progesterone increases bone formation; and 3) that combined hormonal birth control use is associated with decreased adolescent women’s peak bone mass accrual.