Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.

Author Of 1 Presentation

Gender Differences, Hormones and Sex Chromosomes Poster Presentation

P1143 - The relationship between multiple sclerosis attacks and menstrual cycle days (ID 824)

Presentation Number
P1143
Presentation Topic
Gender Differences, Hormones and Sex Chromosomes

Abstract

Background

Background: There are many evidences for effect of gonadal hormones on gender difference in multiple sclerosis (MS). It is also known that progesterone and estradiol levels fluctuate during various stages of the female menstrual cycle; as such, the rate of attacks might be different during various days of the cycle. Symptoms of MS may worsen in the premenstrual period. More ever, more Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) lesions during this luteal phase, when the ratio of progesterone to estrogen is highest, were reported which suggest that higher levels of progesterone are related to new MRI lesions. Another evidence for gonadal effect on MS presentations is the therapeutic potential of estrogens in MS by immunomodulatory and neuroprotective pathways.

Objectives

Objectives: Since the literate is scarce, the causes behind the fluctuations of MS symptoms with the menstrual days’ cycle is remained a puzzle. Hence, in this project we aimed to study the correlation between the MS attack and menstrual period amongst patients with relapsing form of MS.

Methods

Methods: This cross-section study conducted as a descriptive-analytical approach. The study population consisted of all the women with relapsing form of MS, aged between 15 and 49 years, who had experienced a recent MS attack. The patients were selected by the available sampling method. The patients' information collected by a checklist. The data entered into the spreadsheet and analyzed by the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) (IBM Corp. Released 2013. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). The descriptive data presented as the frequency (percent) as well as mean ± standard deviation (SD). The data analyzed using the Chi-square test. The significance level (p-value) considered to be 0.05 in this study.

Results

Results: Data for two hundred and six hospital admitted women were available. Thirty-three patients had non-relapsing types of MS and excluded from analysis; hence, 173 women with relapsing form entered into the analysis. Most of patients reported that MS attack happened during the first half of their cycles (59%). Among four different phases of menstruation, more than half of attacks happened at the first 7 days of cycle (53.3%). We also found that OCP consumption was correlated with attacks at proliferative or secretory phases (menstruation + ovulation: 6% and proliferative + secretory phases: 18.2%) (p-value: 0.045).

Conclusions

Conclusion: In our study, patients had more attack during menstruation and ovulation phases compared to secretory and proliferative phases. Another result was that of OCP use might decrease rate of attacks during menstruation and ovulation phases. These findings support the association between gonadal hormones level and MS attacks. Further studies are warranted to investigate more variables to yield a robust conclusion.

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