A Great Homework Assignment

Can you think of an experiment which could prove menstrual synchrony is the product of exposure to exogenous hormones? 

Why would exposure to greater levels of exogenous hormones (not present until relatively recently) lead to menstrual synchrony, rather than increasing asynchrony? 

If exposure to exogenous hormones is leading to higher rates of reproductive cancers, as some wonder, then perhaps susceptibility to menstrual synchrony, rather than being something positive, is actually a risk factor for reproductive cancers.  How could you prove this?

McClintock suggests there may be some optimal level of pheromonal exposure leading to menstrual synchrony, not too much and not too little.  What benefit evolutionarily would there be to this?

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We’re almost at the end of our exploration of menstrual synchrony research over the last 30 years.  It’s not easy tearing down a frozen waterfall, is it?  And yet, there will be visitors to MOLT who, despite all of the foregoing, will still champion menstrual synchrony as a real phenomenon.  In the last two sections, two possible motivations are presented for this championing, the need for coincidence…and the desire for menstrual camaraderie.

X Menstrual Synchrony: Result of Human Need for Coincidence?

X Menstrual Synchrony Index

X Return to MoltXibits

X Return to Main Page

X Contact MOLT