Case Reports from Women Using a Quantitative Hormone Monitor to Track the Perimenopause Transition.

The fertility tracking of menstrual cycles during perimenopause with a quantitative hormone monitor is a novel undertaking. Women in regular menstrual cycles have been tracking their fertility using different biomarkers since the 1960's. Presently, there are newer electronic hormonal devices used to track fertility that provide more exact and objective data to help delineate the fertile time frame of a woman's cycle. These devices measure quantitative levels of estrogen, the luteinizing hormone, progesterone, and follicle-stimulating hormone, all of which occur at varying levels during the menstrual cycle. As women advance toward menopause, their cycles vary in length, and their hormones fluctuate. In this retrospective analysis, forty-two women aged 40 to 50 tracked their cycles over time, and eight of these forty-two women used the quantitative hormonal device. With the use of this device, the perimenopausal period has revealed distinct hormonal cycle characteristics that are unique to this group of women. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these cycle's characteristics during perimenopause, which were found with the use of the quantitative hormonal device.

Perimenopause and the Use of Fertility Tracking: 3 Case Studies.

Perimenopause is a time in a woman's life where fertility may vary depending upon her age and her reproductive stage and has been defined as the transition period prior to menopause that is characterized by irregular menses, hormonal changes, vasomotor symptoms, and declining fertility (Casper, 2020). Fertility tracking during this time in a woman's reproductive stage has not been widely studied. Employing the use of Luteinizing Hormone Urine Assay sticks, an electronic hormonal monitor device or mucus, we propose a set of guidelines to determine the potentially fertile times of a woman's cycle based on staging according to the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (STRAW) criteria and illustrate their application with three case reports.

Applying a Positive (Organizational) Psychology Lens to the Study of Employee Green Behavior: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda.

Employees can play a decisive role in combatting climate change by engaging in green behavior at work. Research on employee green behavior has recently gained traction, with research results pointing to the considerable influence of positive variables (e.g., personal values, positive affect) on employee green behavior. While such positive variables lie at the heart of the scholarly discipline positive organizational psychology, there is scant research at the intersection of positive organizational psychology and employee green behavior. The current manuscript aims to give impetus to such research. To this end, the manuscript presents a systematic review of the literature on positive predictors of employee green behavior and identified 94 articles that investigate such predictors. We explicitly map these investigated predictors onto a positive (organizational) psychology frame of reference. Subsequently, we use the findings of the review to identify gaps and outline concrete suggestions for future research at the intersection of positive organizational psychology and employee green behavior, addressing both theoretical and methodological suggestions.

Influence of Contraception Use on the Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Young Adults.

Oral contraceptives (OCs) are often prescribed to adolescents and young adults for the treatment of health problems and to avoid unwanted pregnancies. We hypothesized that the use of OCs, among adolescents and young adults, is associated with a greater likelihood of pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and sexual behaviors that will enhance those problems (i.e., earlier sexual debut and more sexual partners) than adolescents and young adults not using OCs. To test this hypothesis, data from 1,365 adolescents and young adults in the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) were used to describe the influence of ever use of OCs on ever having sex, sexual debut, multiple sexual partners, STDs, PID, pregnancy, and abortion. A secondary purpose was to evaluate protective factors from unhealthy sexual practices like religiosity, church attendance, and intact families. We found that the "ever use" of OCs by US adolescents and young adults results in a greater likelihood of ever having sex, STDs, PID, pregnancy, and abortion compared with those adolescents and young adults who never used OCs. Furthermore, those adolescents who ever used OCs had significantly more male sexual partners than those who never used OCs, and they also had an earlier sexual debut by almost two years. Conversely, we found that frequent church attendance, identification of the importance of religion, and having an intact family among adolescents were associated with less likelihood of unsafe sexual practices. We concluded that the use of OCs by adolescents and young adults might be considered a health risk. Further research is recommended to confirm these associations. Summary: The purpose of this article was to show the correlation between contraceptive use in adolescents and negative sexual outcomes. We used data from the 2011-2013 NSFG and demonstrated that never married adolescents who used oral hormonal contraception were three times more likely to have an STD, have PID, and to become pregnant, and, surprisingly, ten times more likely of having an abortion compared to noncontracepting adolescents. These are outcomes that contraception is intended to prevent. These data also showed that the contraceptors had significantly more male partners than their contraceptive counterparts. Protective factors such as church attendance and family cohesiveness were associated with a decreased likelihood of sexual activity.

Enhancing psychological capital and personal growth initiative: working on strengths or deficiencies.

Personal growth initiative (PGI), defined as being proactive about one's personal development, is critical to graduate students' academic success. Prior research has shown that students' PGI can be enhanced through interventions that focus on stimulating developmental activities. Within this study, we aimed to investigate whether an intervention that stimulates development in the area of one's personal strengths (strengths intervention) has more beneficial effects on students' PGI than an intervention that stimulates development in the area of individual deficiencies (deficiency intervention). We conducted 2 longitudinal field experiments to investigate the effects of the 2 interventions on students' PGI (Experiment 1) and the potential mediating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in this regard (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, 105 (N = 105) university students participated in either a strengths intervention or a deficiency intervention. Results indicated that the strengths intervention increased the students' PGI in the short but not in the long term, whereas the deficiency intervention did not affect PGI. Ninety students (N = 90) participated in Experiment 2, in which we slightly refined both interventions by putting a stronger emphasis on the ongoing development of strengths (strengths intervention) or correction of deficiencies (deficiency intervention) by adding posttraining assignments. Results suggested that participating in both interventions led to increases in PGI over a 3-month period, but that these increases were bigger for the strengths intervention group. Furthermore, the relationship between the strengths intervention and PGI was mediated by hope as one component of PsyCap.