The Premenstrual Phase of the Menstrual Cycle by Rudolf F. Vollman (1977)

The Premenstrual Phase of the Menstrual Cycle by Rudolf F. Vollman in International Review of Natural Family Planning, Volume I, Number 4, Winter 1977

Natural Family planning requires knowledge of the critical events in woman's reproductive physiology. Long ago three clinical signs and symp­toms were described that were observed to occur with a particular regularity in the course of the menstrual cycle: the cervical mucorrhea, the intermen­strual pain, and the rise of the basal body temperature. 

During the first thirty years of this century the skeleton of the hormonal interactions between the pituitary and the ovaries and between the ovarian hormones and their target organs (oviducts, uterus, and vagina) was estab­lished. These researches simultaneously made the clinical signs of cervical mucorrhea, intermenstrual pain, and biphasic basal body temperature acces­sible to experimental verification. Small doses of estrogens were demon­strated to hydrate and thus liquefy the cervical mucus. Larger doses of estro­gens induce peristaltic smooth-muscle contractions in the oviducts, uterus, and uterine ligaments. In some women these contractions are experienced as intermenstrual pains. Progesterones were shown to have a thermogenic effect via thermo-regulatory centers in the hypothalamus. Thus, the cervical mucorrhea, the intermenstrual pain, and the biphasic basal-body-tempera­ture curve became correlated with the hormonal events of the periovulatory phase in the menstrual cycle.

Rudolf Vollman, M.D., is Switzerland's renowned researcher and former head of the Section on Obstetrics. Perinatal Research Branch, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He is the author of a recently published monograph, The Menstrual Cycle. 

international-review-nfp-1977-vollman-premenstrual-phase.pdf