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The relationship between psychological stress and reduced fecundity has been a matter of speculation and investigation for decades. Most previous studies have been compromised, however, by a number of problems including ambiguous direction of causation, poorly operationalized variables, and the confounding of psychological with energetic stress. We presenta two-part study of the relationship between moderate anxiety, both acute and chronic, and daily measures of ovarian steroid and corticosteroid levels in saliva. Anxiety, as a particular form of psychosocial stress, was measured by the Spielberger Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory as well as by a self-reported daily stress score. In the first part, 23 college juniors taking the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) were studied the month before and the month after the test, and again several months later, and compared at the same time points with 27 controls. In the second part, chronic anxiety levels were assessed in 95 women between 27 and 41 years of age and analyzed in relation to daily levels of salivary ovarian and corticosteroids over one menstrual cycle. The sample sizes are sufficient to allow for confidence in negative results. No statistically significant differences in ovarian of corticosteroid levels were observed whether between the MCAT and control subjects in part one, between the MCAT subjects before and after the MCAT test in part one, or between high and low anxiety subjects in part two. The results indicate that moderate levels of anxiety, whether acute or chronic, are not associated with suppressed ovarian function in healthy women. KEY WORDS ovarian function; stress; anxiety; estradiol; progesterone

Poor fetal environments are thought to produce adaptive changes in human developmental trajectories according to the Predictive Adaptive Response hypothesis. Although many studies have demonstrated correlations between indicators of fetal environment and negative adult health outcomes, the adaptive significance of these outcomes is unclear. Our study explicitly tests the adaptive nature of fetal programming in humans. We show that differences in nutritional status at birth are associated with adaptive differences in the sensitivity of adult ovarian function to energetic stress. Women who were born as relatively fat babies do not exhibit ovarian suppression in response to moderate levels of physical activity at adulthood, in contrast to women who were born as skinnier babies. The levels of estradiol in women born in the highest tertile of ponderal index (an indicator of neonatal nutritional status) were 37% and 46% higher, respectively, than levels of estradiol in women born in the low and middle ponderal index tertiles. These findings suggest that fetal programming of reproductive function results in developmentally plastic, but essentially adaptive, shifts in set points of ovarian response to energetic stress, such that women who were gestated under conditions of energetic constraint show greater sensitivity to energetic stress in adulthood. Our results have practical implications in terms of behavioral strategies for reducing the risk of breast cancer. We suggest that the amount of activity necessary to reduce levels of estrogen, which may in turn reduce cancer risk, can depend on a woman's nutritional status at birth. birth weight | cancer prevention | fetal programming | ovarian function | physical activity

A study to show that ponderal index at birth predicts high estradiol levels in adult women is presented. Conditions during fetal life influence adult production of reproductive hormones and may contribute to inter-individual variation in reproductive function and there is a physiological link for the observed positive relationship between indicators of energetic conditions during fetal growth and breast cancer in women.

A comparison of demographic data from a sample of traditional, natural-fertility societies demonstrates that the mean total fertility of populations which practise intensive agriculture is significantly higher than that of foragers and horticulturalists. These findings support the association that demographers and economists have long maintained between the intensification of subsistence technology and increases in human fertility. This higher fertility probably results from changes in nutritional status, marriage patterns, and breastfeeding practices that frequently accompany subsistence intensification. A fuller explanation of these fertility differentials, however, will require the collection of further high-quality microdemographic data from a variety of traditional societies.

A study was conducted to examine possible reasons for the variations in progesterone levels in premenopausal Polish women. Results revealed that a number of external factors like lifestyle, genes and early developmental conditions had an effect on hormone levels.

The article describes the use of an updated version of William's strategy to identify adaptations and for testing adaptive hypothesis within the domain of human biology.

A study tests whether normal, premenopausal women's luteal endometrial thickness (ET) is associated with their red blood count (RBC) and hemoglobin concentrations (Hg), in order to assess whether a high ET results in anemia in the women. It is proposed that a thicker endometrium suggests greater iron reserves, rather than greater risk of anemia in healthy women.

A striking disparity in the impact of children on the life span of mothers and fathers in a Polish rural population is presented. It shows that the number of daughters is positively related to a longer life span of their fathers, increasing their longevity on average by 74 weeks per daughter born, while number of sons did not have a significant effect on paternal longevity.

A study conducted reveals that in polish rural women seasonal changes in workload correlated with seasonal changes in indices of ovarian function. During the summer, when physical work was most intense, low values of progesterone levels were observed, indicating ovarian suppression.