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Seminar

Surprising Outcomes: Community-based studies of fertility, hormones and pregnancy loss

Virginia Vitzthum

Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has now been cancelled. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

 

Abstract: Drawing on her comparative studies across 3 continents, Professor Vitzthum will discuss data that shines new light on long-held notions about the causes of early pregnancy loss, the links between hormone concentrations and both current fecundity and lifetime fertility, and how dietary composition may influence ovarian steroid concentrations. These findings expand our understanding of the extent and significance of both intra- and inter-populational variability in human reproductive functioning.

 

Bio: Dr. Virginia Vitzthum's research focuses on women's reproductive functioning and how it differs between individuals and across populations around the world. Starting in the mid-1990s, Vitzthum has directed Project REPA—a long-term study of hormonal variation, fertility, and health in highland Bolivian women. In 2007, Vitzthum began a study comparing reproductive hormone levels of women who grew up in East Germany versus West Germany during the Cold War. Vitzthum has recently begun a collaborative study of women in the Arctic, where there is nearly continuous darkness for several months around mid-winter and nearly continuous daylight for several months around mid-summer. She and her colleagues hope to learn how these extreme light patterns—which are in some ways similar to those seen in shift workers around the world—affect immune functioning, hormone levels, depression, and sleep patterns. Vitzthum's research has received support from the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholar Program, and private foundations and organizations and In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her contributions to understanding the causes and consequences of female reproductive variation.

 

Free and open to all. Entry is on a first come, first serve basis.

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