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Possible Roles of Melatonin in Disturbances of the Menstrual Cycle

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The Menstrual Cycle and Its Disorders

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Abstract

Until a few decades ago textbooks of physiology or endocrinology routinely dismissed the pineal gland as Decartes’ “seat of the soul,” or as a calcified vestige of a more phylogenetically primitive third eye whose only function, in humans, was as a landmark for neuroradiologists. However, since the end of the 1950s rapid and continuing progress has been made in uncovering functions for the pineal gland and for its principal secretion, melatonin (Wurtman and Moskovitz 1977). The importance of this hormone in controlling mammalian reproduction, especially among seasonal breeders, now appears to be well established (Wurtman et al. 1963; Reiter 1980). Recently, evidence has been published suggesting that the pineal, acting via melatonin, may also be involved in the regulation of human reproductive processes, particularly involving puberty (Waldhauser et al. 1984) and the menstrual cycle (Webley and Leidenberger 1986; Brzezinski et al. 1988). The actions of each of these processes and evidence implicating melatonin in certain disturbances of the menstrual cycle are discussed below.

Most of the studies described in this paper were performed in the Clinical Research Center and the Laboratory of Neuroendocrine Regulation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Ma, USA

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, 91120, Israel

    A. Brzezinski

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  1. A. Brzezinski
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, Kraepelinstr. 10, 8000, München 40, Germany

    Karl Martin Pirke  & Ulrich Schweiger  & 

  2. Abteilung für Klinische und Experimentelle Endokrinologie, Universität Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, 3400, Göttingen, Germany

    Wolfgang Wuttke

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Brzezinski, A. (1989). Possible Roles of Melatonin in Disturbances of the Menstrual Cycle. In: Pirke, K.M., Wuttke, W., Schweiger, U. (eds) The Menstrual Cycle and Its Disorders. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74631-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74631-4_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-50975-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74631-4

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