Menstruation and the Moon

Factual Questions
1

On NPR last night (during All Things Considered, I think), a writer was being interviewed. (I didn’t catch her name or what she wrote – I’m just full of details.) She said that the menstrual cycle for women who sleep outside will adjust to coincide with the lunar cycle, with the women being most fertile during the full moon (more or less). She also mentioned a connection with the pituitary gland. I didn’t hear the whole interview, so I may have missed some vital bits of information.

I saw a couple of previous threads about the connection between menstruation and the moon, but they didn’t address this. So I have two questions:

  1. Are there reliable studies that show that women who sleep outside on a regular basis will have their menstrual cycles tuned to the moon’s cycle?

  2. How does this happen? Is the pituitary gland involved?

2

Sounds bogus. Other placental mammals have different menstrual cycles, some longer, some shorter. And most animals sleep outside. Why don’t they coincide with the moon, menstrually speaking?

3

  1. No.

  2. No. But there is some evidence that the pineal gland (near, but behind, the pituitary) does play a role in this. It may be able to sense the day/light cycle, and thus would be partially responsible for maintaining the menstrual cycle by clocking out 24 hours, and knowing when 28 days is over. There are also genes to regulate the 24-hour cycle, at least in fruit flies.

LL

4

It doesn’t sound too likely to me. What is meant by “outside” exactly? Outside on the ground, or outside in a tent? A hut? A lean-to? If the great outdoors has such an effect, wouldn’t it happen if I just slept with the windows open?

5

Let’s look at what [url="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/990924.html"Cecil has to say on the subject.
Keith

6

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/990924.html

Here’s the link above :wink:
Damn VB code.
keith