Title: The Menstrual Cycle Regularity and Skin#Irregular Menstrual Cycle Affects Skin
Physiological Properties and Skin Bacterial Microbiome in Urban Chinese Women
Version: 1 Date: 01 Mar 2023
Reviewer's report:
"PEER REVIEWER ASSESSMENTS:
OBJECTIVE - Full research articles: is there a clear objective that addresses a testable research
question(s) (brief or other article types: is there a clear objective)?
Yes - there is a clear objective
DESIGN - Is the current approach (including controls and analysis protocols) appropriate for
the objective?
Yes - the approach is appropriate
EXECUTION - Are the experiments and analyses performed with technical rigor to allow
confidence in the results?
Yes - experiments and analyses were performed appropriately
STATISTICS - Is the use of statistics in the manuscript appropriate?
Yes - appropriate statistical analyses have been used in the study
INTERPRETATION - Is the current interpretation/discussion of the results reasonable and not
overstated?
Yes - the author's interpretation is reasonable
OVERALL MANUSCRIPT POTENTIAL - Is the current version of this work technically
sound? If not, can revisions be made to make the work technically sound?
Maybe - with major revisions
PEER REVIEWER COMMENTS:
GENERAL COMMENTS: The authors present a novel and interesting study. The main handicap
of this manuscript is the language. In its current format, many of the sentences are confusing
or grammatically incorrect. Below are some guidelines that authors can follow to improve the
quality of their article.
Please replace the expressions “tremendous Works” (abstract and discussion) and “tremendous
of women” (discussion) with more objective and scientific ones.
The phrase “Scientific research has confirmed that the physiological changes associated with
the menstrual cycle” (Introduction, lines 86-87) does not make sense. Please review it.
Line 94 (Introduction): “…progesterone[14]. estrogen was supposed to prevent…”: Put
“estrogen with a capital E.
In the three categories described in the methods, authors need to further specify how they
distinguished between C2 and C3. This is an important point of the study and it is not well
clarified in the current manuscript.
The phrase “All subjects were not allowed to wash faces on the night before and to collect skin
bacteria on the next morning.” (lines 184-185) doesn't make much sense. What do the authors
mean exactly?
In the ""results"" section, the authors mix their results with findings from previous literature.
These comments should be reserved specifically for the ""discussion"" section. Some examples
of these comments that should be deleted or moved to the discussion are the following: Lines
250-262; lines 268-275; lines 294-297; lines 362-267.
The phrase “However, tremendous of women around the world meet with menstrual cycle
irregularity, have a significant impact on the physical, mental, and social well-being” does not
make sense. Please review.
Line 377: “rreported”.
Line 387; The expression “As we known,” is incorrect in English.
The phrase “It was proven that skin physiological changes associated with the menstrual
cycle[15].” has no sense.
Line 418: It is very interesting… “that”.
The phrase “Previous researches have proved that among those with irregular menstrual
cycle, the frequency and degree of menstrual symptoms aggravated, such as the premenstrual
exacerbation of Acne, Atopic Dermatitis, Oestrogen Dermatitis” needs grammatical revision.
Line 414: correct “increases”.
The sentence “The similar conclusion was obtained from studying skin types and diversity of
skin flora, the sebum content was negative correlation to #-diversity index” should be modified
or converted into two sentences.
The phrase “It is well known that Cutibacterium acne and Staphylococcus epidermidis, the main
species on the facial skin, also known as sentinel bacteria” does not make sense.
The phrase “In addition, the ratio of Staphylococcus to Cutibacterium was increased with the
increased irregular trend of menstrual cycle, indicated that the ratio of bacterial phyla or/and
generate shift might disturb the skin homeostasis” does not make sense. You have to change
the verb to a gerund.
The phrase “Hormones regulate the skin physiological parameter, sebum production and
skin hydration, and sebum, skin hydration affected the microbial diversity and the microbial
composition, so those indicated the skin microflora was correlated with hormonal changes” is
misleading in its current state. Please modify.
The sentence “The abundance of Cutibacterium was positively correlated with sebum,
hemoglobin, a value.” requires to be modified. Probably adding an ""and"".
The expression “These data were agreement with the previous report” is not correct in English.
The phrase “Compared with the regular menstrual cycle group, the skin physiological properties
of the irregular menstrual cycle group were lower in skin hydration content, higher in TEWL
and sebum content and more pigmentation, especially in skin microbiota, the lower microbial
diversity and different species composition.” is confusing. It probably needs to be split into two
sentences.
Check the grammar of this sentence: “Irregular menstrual cycle was regulated by irregularity of
hormone fluctuations, and affected the normal function of the skin and then was easy to cause
skin health problems, such as premenstrual acne and eczema.”
In conclusion, the article would greatly benefit from grammar checking by a native English
speaker. The publication would not be possible without a complete editing of the text, correcting
grammatical errors and clarifying what the authors really mean in some sentences.
ADDITIONAL REQUESTS/SUGGESTIONS:
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