Understanding socio-ecological variation in menstrual cycles to advance female health – C-HEALTH

The aim of this project is to advance our understanding of the social and ecological determinants of menstrual health in non-clinical (i.e., “normal”) settings. Menstrual cycles have been recognized to be a vital sign for female health, because of its association with the development of various chronic diseases. While the physiological causes of menstrual disturbances are well studied, the socio-ecological determinants of variation in menstrual cycle parameters (i.e., cycle length and regularity, period duration and flow, inter-menstrual bleeding, pre-menstrual and menstrual symptoms, levels of reproductive hormones and peri-menstrual inflammation) are poorly understood in contemporary developed populations, partly due to the paucity of robust data in non-clinical settings. This limits our ability to understand the environmental determinants of menstrual ill-health (e.g., premenstrual syndrome, abnormal uterine bleeding, short luteal phase, anovulation). To address this gap, the team will build on insights from environmental epidemiology and human reproductive ecology to investigate the influence of socio-economic and environmental inequalities on the menstrual cycles of women living in France.