Hello!

The study: I wanted to tell you about a piece of research I am conducting intended to further our understanding of how thoughts and beliefs may change during the menstrual cycle.

Participants: For this study I need women aged 18-45 who menstruate regularly. It does not matter at what point you are in your cycle when you enter, but I would ask that it has been at least 12 months since you gave birth.

Taking part involves: completing a ten minute online questionnaire each week for four weeks (I would send you a friendly reminder email each week).

If you are interested in taking part, please click on or enter this link into your web browser:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TGFML9H

You will be asked for your email address to send you weekly reminders, but this information will only be available to the researchers and will not be linked to the data during analysis. It will be destroyed as soon as the study is complete.

This research is a part of my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Sheffield. The study has received ethical approval from the University of Sheffield Department of Psychology Ethics Committee. In accordance with ethical guidance, all information you provide will remain entirely confidential, and you are free to withdraw at any time.

Queries?If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to email me at pcp08rh@sheffield.ac.uk.

If you know anyone else who might be interested in taking part, please do forward this advert to them as every participant is appreciated.

Thank you

Rosalind Hall

Researchers:

Rosalind Hall
Trainee Clinical Psychologist


Dr Georgina Rowse
Clinical Psychologist

Prof. Pauline Slade
Prof Clinical Psychology

University of Sheffield

Sounds interesting. But what do you mean by "menstruate regularly"? Does this require precise four week cycles? How regular does it have to be? And what about women on or recently off birth control? May they participate, or not?

Some of us here use an alternative birth control pill, centchroman. It does not suppress the menstrual cycle, but it can and often does change the length of the cycle, and may make other changes as well. Would being on centchroman be a disqualifier?

Hello GreenTea, thank you for your post. The inclusion criteria regarding menstruating regularly is designed to exclude women who aren't menstruating at all, or who have very irregular cycles. It does not matter how long your cycle is as we are interested in various points of the cycle.

Using birth control does not exclude you from the study, however we do ask you about this, so as long as you tell us that you are using centchroman we can take this into account when doing our analysis. I hope this answers your questions. If you have any further questions please do ask.

Many thanks

Rosalind

So how do I say in the survey that I'm on centchroman? There's a question about hormonal contraception, but centchroman isn't hormonal.

Also, my cycle range on centchroman is usually four and a half to five weeks, but can be anywhere from four to six weeks. Does that meet the criteria? I'm still unclear on what you mean by "very irregular."