Women's reproductive lifespan and subsequent inflammatory profile, how to best measure reproductive lifespan and the need for baseline assessments.

Women's reproductive lifespan and subsequent inflammatory profile, how to best measure reproductive lifespan and the need for baseline assessments. Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Dec 17;: Authors: Schliep KC Abstract Inflammatory processes are known to drive the pathogenesis of several chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and all-cause mortality. Emerging research indicates that women who have a longer reproductive lifespan, roughly age of menarche to age of menopause or lifetime ovulatory cycles after accounting for anovulatory timespans, are at lower risk for these same inflammation-related chronic diseases. The paradox is that ovulation is known to induce acute inflammation. Given the limited research that has assessed the relationship between reproductive lifespan and later inflammatory profiles, Huang et al., set out to investigate this relationship within one of the most robust women's longitudinal cohorts-the Nurses' Health Studies. The authors found that after adjusting for other inflammation-related factors including adiposity, exercise, and diet, lifetime ovulatory years was associated with lower C-reactive protein in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The paper by Huang et al. calls to attention several challenges in women's reproductive lifespan research including how to appropriately capture lifetime ovulatory cycles and the need for repeated measures of inflammatory biomarkers across ...
Source: Am J Epidemiol - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: Am J Epidemiol Source Type: research