This project will examine how women's health behaviors vary across the menstrual cycle. It is well documented that women behave differently during the various phases of their menstrual cycles but no one has examined how or whether their behaviors covary with each other. Women will be asked to keep daily records of their exercise, eating, sexual and health behaviors along with a profile of their mental well-being. These data will be analyzed across independent variables which focus on whether or not sperm are entering the female's reproductive system and whether females have altered their normal hormone profiles by taking birth control pills or receiving depo-provera shots. Additionally, subjects' immune system responses, in terms of saliva and menstrual IgA and menstrual IgM and leukocyte numbers, and stress responses, in terms of saliva cortisol levels, will be obtained at five different phases of their cycles. By the project's end, we will be able to construct a profile of how the health of women varies across their menstrual cycle and how it is affected by their reproductive behavior and by behaviors that alter their normal hormone profiles. These data are needed so that not only can physicians be trained to better treat females, but females can also learn more about their normal health patterns.
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