Hormone Health Study (HHS)

# Hormone Health Study (HHS)

The Hormone Health Study (HHS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara was designed to probe an understudied question relevant to half of the world's population: how does the menstrual cycle impact the human nervous system?
To uncover answers, we applied state-of-the-art neuroimaging and physiological recording techniques to assess how human physiology, behavior, and brain structure and function co-fluctuate with naturally cycling hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG)-axis hormones across 3 estimated cycle phases: menses, ovulation, and mid-luteal.

### Dataset: Brain Anatomy and Structure
**Current Version:** 1.0.1

**Note:** This repository contains brain structural data for the subset of HHS participants who completed 3 MRI sessions and consented to open data sharing (22/30). Future updates may include functional resting-state measures.

**Dataset Description:** 22 young, naturally cycling female participants underwent T1-weighted anatomical and multidimensional diffusion MRI
- Inclusion criteria: participants must be between the ages of 18-30, be nulliparous, have not used any hormonal or implant birth control within three months prior to onset of study involvement, have never undergone hormonal therapy, have no plans to begin birth control or become pregnant within the upcoming year, and have a relatively regular (21-40 day length) menstrual cycle
- Exclusionary criteria: contraindications to MRI (non-removable metal, incompatible medical devices, hearing loss/tinnitus, claustrophobia) and medical history of clinically significant reproductive, cardiovascular, neurological, or psychiatric conditions (other than mild-moderate mood or attention deficit disorders)

**Blood Acquisition**: A licensed phlebotomist collected a blood sample (< 8.5 – 10 cc) from each participant during each session (3 samples/participant). The phlebotomist used a BD Diagnostics vacutainer push button to start an intravenous line (hand or forearm), and then used a 10mL vacutainer SST tube (BD Diagnostics) to collect the sample.
After collection, the sample was allowed 30 minutes to clot at room temperature, and was then centrifuged (2100 RPM for 10 minutes). From the centrifuged samples, experimenters aliquoted 1mL of serum into three 2mL microtubes, which were subsequently stored in a -80 degree freezer until 2 of the microtubes (per participant) were shipped for processing at the Endocrine Technologies Core (ETC) at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC, Beaverton, OR).
Gonadal steroid hormone concentrations were obtained using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-heated electrospray ionization-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) on a Shimadzu Nexera-LCMS-8060 instrument (Kyoto, Japan). The dynamic range for both 17β-estradiol and progesterone was 0.002 to 20 ng/ml, with the following lower quantification limits, intra-assay variations, and accuracies, respectively:
0.002 ng/ml, 2.1%, and 100.9% for 17β-estradiol, and 0.010 ng/ml, 12.3%, and 106.3% for progesterone.
Pituitary gonadotropin concentrations were obtained using a Roche cobas e411 automated clinical immunoassay platform (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN).
The assay range for both LH and FSH was 0.1 – 200 mIU/ml, while the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CVs) were respectively 2.3% and 2.4% for n = 2 LH assays, and 0.9% and 1.0% for n = 2 FSH assays.

**MRI Protocol**: Following each session’s blood draw, participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a Siemens 3T Prisma scanner with a 64-channel phased-array head/neck coil. First, high-resolution T1-weighted magnetization prepared rapid gradient echo (MPRAGE) anatomical scans were acquired (TR = 2500 ms, TE = 2.22 ms, FOV = 241 mm, T1 = 851 ms, flip angle = 7°, with 0.9 mm3 voxel size).
Following the anatomical scan, a series of 4 spherical b-tensor (b = 0, 100 – 500, 1000, 1500 s/mm2; 3 diffusion directions) and 4 linear b-tensor (b = 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 s/mm2; 6, 10, 16, 30 diffusion directions) q-space trajectory imaging (QTI) diffusion sequences that have been shown to have good contrast-to-noise ratio (Martin et al., 2020) were collected
(TR = 6308 ms, TE = 80 ms, diffusion gradient amplitude = 80.0 mT/m, FOV = 230 mm, flip angle = 90°, 2.0 x 2.0 mm2 in-plane resolution, 4.0 mm slice thickness, iPAT factor = 2).

## More Information
For more information, please visit:
- [Our published cortical thickness and white matter microstructure findings](http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26785)
- [The menstrual cycle can reshape your brain](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/menstruation-brain-women-reshape)
- [Women's brains change across the menstrual cycle](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/11/30/women-brain-menstrual-cycle-changes/)
- [A Novel Study Reveals A Strong Correlation Between The Menstrual Cycle And Brain Changes](https://www.inverse.com/health/novel-study-reveals-strong-correlation-menstrual-cycle-brain-changes)

## Citation
Please cite the following:

Babenko, V. (2023). Dynamic Allostatic Modulation During Appraisal, Cognitive Challenge, and Across the Menstrual Cycle (Order No. 30246092). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ University of California; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I; Publicly Available Content Database. (2810870047). https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/dynamic-allostatic-modulation-during-appraisal/docview/2810870047/se-2

Rizor, E. J., Babenko, V., Dundon, N. M., Beverly-Aylwin, R., Stump, A., Hayes, M., Herschenfeld-Catalan, L., Jacobs, E. G., & Grafton, S. T. (2024). Menstrual cycle-driven hormone concentrations co-fluctuate with white and gray matter architecture changes across the whole brain. Human Brain Mapping, 45(11), e26785. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26785