Menstrual Synchrony Essays -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Menstrual Synchrony Generations of women have noticed it: you and your sister, or your roommate, or lover, or mom, get your periods at the same time. It doesn't always happen, but it catches the attention when it does. Female rats living in the same air space ovulate at the same time. Menstruation in monkeys synchronizes with the full moon (7). So is it all in our heads, or is the same pattern present in humans? The clearest argument against the existence of menstrual synchrony is that since the length of the menstrual cycle varies from person to person (2), two women with different cycle lengths will never synchronize. They may menstruate at the same time, but the next month they will be a little different, the next month more different, and so on. By this argument, synchrony is simply a myth. I cannot believe this argument, since it assumes that menstruation can be graphed and analyzed like a sine wave. Human bodies rarely adhere to perfectly timed schedules. Many women have irregular periods, and the regularity of the menstrual cycle changes at different stages of life (3). So if a woman with a cycle of 25 days and another with cycle of 28 days live together, they might both shift to a cycle of 26 or 27 days. In this way, synchronization would still be quite possible. So if this phenomenon does exist, what explanation can there be for it? One theory is that lunar cycles may have some connection to the pattern. At first this makes some sense, since both cycles happen about thirteen times each year. A study on the Dogon people of Mali found that although they had no electricity and spent most nights outdoors, thus being as likely as anyone to be affected by the light of the moon, menstrual cycles among the Dogon di... ...is this just something women want to believe because it would be cool and bring us closer together? Also, according to McClintock, some women responded strongly to other women's pheromones, while others did not respond at all (6). Does this mean that it is not strictly group behavior but leader/follower behavior, with some women's cycles setting the trend for the others? If so, does this chemical leadership correlate to any kind of social behaviors, like alpha females among wolves? My conclusion can only be that despite all those sex-ed videos from seventh grade, menstruation is still awfully confusing. Internet Sources: 1) http://www.moltx.org/bloodbread.html 2) http://www.moltx.org/noin.html 3) http://www.moltx.org/hume.html 4) http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_306.html 5) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s11122.htm Menstrual Synchrony Essays -- Biology Essays Research Papers Menstrual Synchrony Generations of women have noticed it: you and your sister, or your roommate, or lover, or mom, get your periods at the same time. It doesn't always happen, but it catches the attention when it does. Female rats living in the same air space ovulate at the same time. Menstruation in monkeys synchronizes with the full moon (7). So is it all in our heads, or is the same pattern present in humans? The clearest argument against the existence of menstrual synchrony is that since the length of the menstrual cycle varies from person to person (2), two women with different cycle lengths will never synchronize. They may menstruate at the same time, but the next month they will be a little different, the next month more different, and so on. By this argument, synchrony is simply a myth. I cannot believe this argument, since it assumes that menstruation can be graphed and analyzed like a sine wave. Human bodies rarely adhere to perfectly timed schedules. Many women have irregular periods, and the regularity of the menstrual cycle changes at different stages of life (3). So if a woman with a cycle of 25 days and another with cycle of 28 days live together, they might both shift to a cycle of 26 or 27 days. In this way, synchronization would still be quite possible. So if this phenomenon does exist, what explanation can there be for it? One theory is that lunar cycles may have some connection to the pattern. At first this makes some sense, since both cycles happen about thirteen times each year. A study on the Dogon people of Mali found that although they had no electricity and spent most nights outdoors, thus being as likely as anyone to be affected by the light of the moon, menstrual cycles among the Dogon di... ...is this just something women want to believe because it would be cool and bring us closer together? Also, according to McClintock, some women responded strongly to other women's pheromones, while others did not respond at all (6). Does this mean that it is not strictly group behavior but leader/follower behavior, with some women's cycles setting the trend for the others? If so, does this chemical leadership correlate to any kind of social behaviors, like alpha females among wolves? My conclusion can only be that despite all those sex-ed videos from seventh grade, menstruation is still awfully confusing. Internet Sources: 1) http://www.moltx.org/bloodbread.html 2) http://www.moltx.org/noin.html 3) http://www.moltx.org/hume.html 4) http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_306.html 5) http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s11122.htm