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The dynamic interplay between women’s stress and reproductive axes across reproductive transitions

Main goal: To develop a comprehensive model of the interactions between women’s stress and reproductive physiology in natural contexts (i.e. non-clinical) across reproductive transitions and to evaluate the effects of those interactions on women’s reproductive outcomes

Background: The pervasive effects of stress on health and well-being are well recognized, yet most research in this area does not adequately account for the changes in stress physiology women experience across reproductive phases.
The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) and the female hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPGA). [larger image]
© 2012 Pablo Nepomnaschy and Katrina Salvante The neuroendocrine axes regulating stress (hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, HPAA) and reproduction (hypothalamic- pituitary-gonadal axis, HPGA) are intimately inter-connected. As women transition between reproductive phases the way the HPA and HPG axes interact and function changes. Understanding those changes is paramount to all studies focused on both women’s stress and reproduction. Presently, there is no comprehensive longitudinal model of women’s HPAA-HPGA interactions in non-clinical contexts.

Aims:

1. Describe the longitudinal progression of HPAA and HPGA across key reproductive transitions (postpartum amenorrhea, resumption of ovarian cyclicity, regular ovarian cyclicity, early pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause)
2. Study changes in HPAA-HPGA interactions across those transitions
3. Investigate the role of energetic and immune challenges as modulators of HPAA-HPGA interactions and their effect on reproductive endpoints: length of postpartum amenorrhea, cycle quality postpartum, fecundability and pregnancy maintenance.

Funding: Our research is supported by operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a seed grant from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research - Women’s Health Research Network, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Investigator Scholar Award, a University of Pennsylvania PARC/PSC/Boettner Institute TRIO Pilot Project grant, and the Human Evolutionary Studies Program at Simon Fraser University, which was supported by the Simon Fraser University Community Trust Endowment Fund.