Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Objectives : Our purpose was to study the levels of maternal trait anxiety and to determine the stress hormone in pregnant women at 30 weeks of gestation.
Methods : The study population consisted of 24 pregnant women who were admitted to the Obstetrical Clinic of Tokyo Women,s Medical University between October 1, 2004 and August 31, 2005. This protocol was approved by the Human Investigational Review Board for our University. Written agreement was obtained from all participants before this study. To assess maternal stress, we used the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and measured the stress hormone i.e. corticotropin releaseing hormone(CRH), adrenocorticotrophic hormone(ACTH), cortisol and chromogranin(CgA). Simultaneously, we measured fetal heart rate (FHR) pattern before and after the vibratory acoustic stimulation (VAS) and divided four response type:positive, triphasic, negative and non response. VAS was performed a single 3-second over the fetal vertex with (75Hz, 75 dB) after quiet phase.
Results : In state anxiety, response types after VAS were not significant in pregnant women with high and low anxiety. The response types after VAS were significant recognized in low trait anxiety (p< 0.01). On the other hand, the triphasic types were recognized in high trait anxiety (p< 0.05). The mean values of maximum acceleration in FHR after VAS was significantly lower in high trait than low trait anxiety (8.4 ± 2.1 vs. 17.6 ± 7.3 bpm, rspectively). The FHR response after VAS in pregnant women with high trait anxiety showed poor response and the rsponse pattern was recognised triphasic rather than normal response.
Conclusions : These findings suggest that the stress in pregnant women with high trait anxiety might influence FHR after VBS.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Menopause was medicalized as early as the 1930s as an estrogen “deficiency disease” requiring treatment with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to combat the aging process and prevent chronic disease. In the past 30 years, the safety and efficacy of HRT have been seriously challenged by two highly publicized risk scares. The first risk scare in the 1970s concerned the increased risk of endometrial cancer with unopposed estrogen therapy. The second occurred after publication of the Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 that demonstrated an increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases with combined estrogen-progestin. While both risk scares led to dramatic declines in HRT usage, nearly 50% of women continued to use HRT despite the apparent risks. The 1970s risk scare was resolved by a supposedly “safe” alternative form of HRT, combined estrogen-progestin, and HRT use increased again to record levels in 2001. Preliminary data indicate that the 2002 risk scare may be beginning resolution with the increased use of “safer” lower-dose HRT whose actual safety is unproven. This sequence of events with HRT is strikingly similar to the persistent medicalization of small breast size and the risk scare associated with silicone breast implants. Given the very substantial decrease in HRT prescriptions of 47% since publication of the WHI study, some might argue that a demedicalization process of menopause is now occurring. Instead, it appears that the medicalization of menopause continues with the demand for HRT, along with the potential of its adverse risks.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: Hormonal analysis provides information about wildlife population dynamics, but can be difficult to do in the field. Our goal is to develop a quick and effective field method for fecal hormone extraction. Objectives are to compare: 1) three methods of fecal hormone extraction [laboratory (LAB), homogenize (HO) and handshake (HS)] and 2) two storage methods [Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) vs. plastic tubes (PT)]. Samples (n=23) from captive African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are thoroughly mixed, 3 aliquots of each are weighed (~0.5g) and 5 mls of 90% ethanol are added. For LAB, samples are agitated on a mixer (setting 60; 30 min), centrifuged (1500 rpm; 20 min) and poured into clean, glass tubes. For HO and HS, aliquots are either HO (1 min) or HS (1 min) and poured through filter paper into clean, glass tubes. Samples are split and either analyzed for corticosterone (C) using an EIA or stored in SPE (following manufacturer’s instructions) or PT [evaporated with air and heat (60°C)]. After storing at RT for 30 d, samples are reconstituted in buffer and analyzed for C. Mean recovery of HO and HS compared to LAB was 99.0% and 76.5%, respectively. After 30 d, 19.6% and 17.5% of C is recovered from SPE for HO and HS, respectively; and 90.4% and 112.1% from PT for HO and HS, respectively. Results demonstrate that HO is more comparable (P= 0.003) to LAB than HS and PT storage is more efficient than SPE (P < 0.001) making HO-PT the most effective field method.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The debate over the risks versus benefits of hormone replacement therapies for menopause has garnered more public attention of late. Wulf Utian (1997), a physician who has researched menopause for over 30 years highlights this shift apparent in recent years: “Once the subject of taboo; now almost in danger of overexposure. Once neglected, now recognized by multiple groups as the entry to a ‘market’. The result is a new level of confusion and even exploitation in the minds of the health profession and the public alike”.
Historical scholarship, however, critiques this trend in understandings of menopause for taking a “decidedly ahistorical approach” (Barbre, 1994), emphasizing that it fails to capture how representations of menopause over time have been shaped by powerful historical and cultural social forces specific to time and place. Cross-cultural evidence for Japan suggests that menopausal symptoms are not universally experienced (Lock, 1992). Moreover, in the current debate over menopause treatment few are aware that the leading drug for menopausal symptoms, Premarin, is produced at great cost to animals, namely horses. Given the current medical climate around women’s health concerns related to menopause and osteoporosis, a sociological analysis of menopause is most appropriate and relevant to the present time—in the coming decade the largest cohort of women in American history will enter menopause.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The Women's Health Initiative of 1991-2006 marked changes in the attitudes towards estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) for menopause and notions of health and gendered health across the lifespan. When two segments of this large, NIH-directed study ended prematurely in 2002 and 2004 due to early evidence that ERT was endangering the participants' health, great commotion ensued among clinical circles, scientific research teams, the media, and women users of ERT. A closer investigation of the history of 20th century practices and ideologies surrounding women's health, endocrinology, and pharmacology reveals that many of these concerns and controversies were set in motion decades ago, taking new shape and drawing from different strategies of discourse as events unraveled.
This paper draws from historical data and interviews with medical researchers to argue that the hormonally constructed body is an evolving phenomenon and has contributed to understandings of menopause as a deficiency disease, a condition that begs for elixirs of youth, and a life stage that puts a woman at risk for degenerative illnesses such as heart disease and osteoporosis. While these arguments persist in popular and medical depictions, I argue that we can also see an emerging view of sex hormones as something that needs to be controlled and regulated more expansively, which has led to proliferating varieties of menopause, such as andropause and perimenopause.