The Missing Link: How Inflammation Mediates the Relationship between Expectation, Infection and Diversity

经前综合症（PMS）的经历因个体和文化而异，但这种差异的原因尚不完全清楚。经前综合症被描述为一种炎症性疾病，虽然生物医学的进步治疗经前综合症的症状，但缺乏这些症状的根本原因的数据。我认为，经前经验的变化可以部分地解释生态，内部生态（感染）和外部生态（月经的预期），炎症介导的。该研究将使用实验设计来研究炎症如何介导生态与经前综合症和月经经历之间的关系。首先，我将研究未确诊的感染（如衣原体）的存在可能会加重PMS症状（PMSx）。其次，我将研究对即将到来的月经的预期的影响，以量化其对炎症水平的影响。参与者将通过应用程序Clue招募，Clue是一个数字时期跟踪应用程序，已与该应用程序建立了合作关系。该应用程序将使我们能够收集有关志愿者PMSx，周期，体重，身高和性活动的数据。炎症的循环水平将通过追踪炎症的生物标志物新蝶呤来量化，该研究与牛津大学生殖免疫学系合作。这些发现将对公共卫生和生殖人类学产生影响，并为开发诊断性传播感染的新方法以及为流行病学和人类学的跨学科方法铺平道路。

The experience of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) varies between individuals and across cultures, but the causes of such variation are not fully understood. PMS has been described as an inflammatory disease, and while biomedical advances treat symptoms of PMS, there is a dearth of data on the root cause of these symptoms. I propose that variation in the premenstrual experience could be partially explained by ecology, both internal ecology (infection) and external ecology (expectation of menstruation), mediated by inflammation. The research will use experimental designs to investigate how inflammation mediates the relationship between ecology and the experiences of PMS and menstruation. First, I will examine the possibility that the presence of undiagnosed infections such as chlamydia can aggravate PMS symptoms (PMSx). Second, I will examine the influence of expectation about upcoming menses to quantify its effects on inflammatory levels. Participants will be recruited through the app, Clue, a digital period tracker app with which a collaboration has been established. The app will enable us to collect data on volunteers PMSx, cycles, weight, height and sexual activity. Cycling levels of inflammation will be quantified through the tracking of a biomarker for inflammation, neopterin, in partnership with the department of reproductive immunology at Oxford. The findings will have implications for public health and reproductive anthropology, as well as for developing novel ways to diagnose STIs (sexually transmitted infections) as well as pave the way for an interdisciplinary approach to epidemiology and anthropology.