As demographic profiles of countries around the world move toward a greater proportion of individuals over age 50, the experience of the menopausal transition may exert a great impact on public health and medical costs, as well as on individual quality of life, and general social structure and relations. Specific dietary factors may also affect aspects of human reproductive endocrinology. Menopause, which is characterized by falling endogenous estrogen levels and endocrine dysregulation, provides a unique opportunity to explore the influence of phytoestrogens on the dynamics and regulation of the reproductive endocrine system. This research aims to characterize the menopausal transition in Japanese women from a biocultural perspective, examining endocrinological, social, psychological, and physical data, and including a focus on diet that is often lacking in many studies of the menopause. Heart rate data in response to hypothetical scenarios were collected on a subsample of subjects.
Analysis is in progress.
Relevant Publications in press Worthman, C. M. and M. K. Melby. Toward a comparative developmental ecology of human sleep. M. A. Carskadon. New York, Cambridge University press. Abstracts 1999 M.K. Melby and E.O. Smith.