Objective:  To determine variability in the phases of the menstrual cycle among healthy, regularly cycling women. Design:  A prospective descriptive study of a new data set with biological markers to estimate parameters of the menstrual cycles. Participants:  One hundred forty one healthy women (mean age 29 years) who monitored 3 to 13 menstrual cycles with an electronic fertility monitor and produced 1,060 usable cycles of data. Measures and Outcomes:  Variability in the length of the menstrual cycle and of the follicular, fertile, and luteal phases, and menses. The estimated day of ovulation and end of the fertile phase was the peak fertility reading on the monitor (i.e., the urinary luteinizing hormone surge). Results:  Mean total length was 28.9 days (SD= 3.4) with 95% of the cycles between 22 and 36 days. Intracycle variability of greater than 7 days was observed in 42.5% of the women. Ninety‐five percent of the cycles had all 6 days of fertile phase between days 4 and 23, but only 25% of participants had all days of the fertile phase between days 10 and 17. Conclusions:  Among regularly cycling women, there is considerable normal variability in the phases of the menstrual cycle. The follicular phase contributes most to this variability. JOGNN, 35, 376‐384; 2006. DOI: 10.1111/j.1552‐6909.2006.00051.x.

Abstract:This study examined the association of religiosity, sexual education and family structure with risky sexual behaviors among adolescents and young adults. The nationally representative sample, from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, included 3,168 women and men ages 15-21 years. Those who viewed religion as very important, had frequent church attendance, and held religious sexual attitudes were 27-54% less likely to have had sex and had significantly fewer sex partners than peers. Participants whose formal and parental sexual education included abstinence and those from two-parent families were 15% less likely to have had sex and had fewer partners.

Two separate correlational studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between spirituality and psychological mood states in response to life change. In the first study a spiritual well-being index, a spiritual-maturity scale, a life-change index, and a depression scale were administered to 95 freshman nursing students. The spiritual well-being index was composed of two sub-scales; a religious well-being and an existential well-being scale. In the second study a spiritual-outlook scale and the Profile of Mood State index was added to the above tests and administered to 75 randomly selected college students. The results demonstrated a weak positive relationship between life change and depression. unlike a previous study, spiritual well-being, existential well-being, and spiritual outlook showed strong inverse relationships with negative moods suggesting that spiritual variables may influence psychological well-being.

The results demonstrate a clinical scenario with 100% specificity for ovulation confirmation and provide the theoretical background for a future development of a competitive lateral flow assay for the detection of PDG in the urine.

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