Shruthi Mahalingaiah
Harvard University, MA·Public Health & Epidemiology
The menstrual cycle is a marker of overall and reproductive health. It is controlled by hormone signals passing between the brain's hypothalamus and pituitary gland and the ovaries.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
menstrual cycle
polycystic ovary syndrome
irregular menses
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Determine whether air pollution exposure during gestation, childhood before menarche (the first period), or adulthood confers the greatest risk of disrupted menstrual cycle characteristics and PCOS.
- Evaluate how life course exposure to climate factors, including temperature and humidity, contributes to menstrual cycle outcomes and risk of polycystic ovary syndrome.
- Assess cumulative lifetime exposure to air pollutants as a predictor of menstrual cycle health and PCOS, rather than exposure at a single time point.
- Measure racial and ethnic disparities in air pollution exposure and menstrual cycle outcomes among patients of a safety-net hospital.
More about the research
Environmental and biological factors can disrupt these signals and cause irregular cycles. The most common cause of irregular periods in reproductive-age women is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS involves poorly functioning ovaries and excess androgens, often called male hormones. Women with PCOS also face higher lifelong risks of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and abnormal blood fats. Air pollution has already been linked to pregnancy loss and to lower success of in vitro fertilization, and temperature affects reproduction in mammals. Even so, how pollution and climate shape menstrual cycle health is poorly understood. Past studies have had limited racial and ethnic diversity, patchy neighborhood-level pollution monitoring, and cycle histories collected from memory after the fact.
Why it matters
Findings could help identify women at higher risk of irregular cycles and PCOS, a condition tied to diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Pinpointing the life stages when air pollution and heat matter most could guide prevention efforts. Data on exposure disparities in safety-net hospital patients could inform environmental and health policy for racial and ethnic groups that bear more pollution.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Kathryn Conlon
University of California-Davis, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether lifetime exposure to extreme weather events (extreme heat, drought, wildfire) is linked to brain imaging markers, cognitive decline, and dementia, using geocoded residential histories of 3,379 diverse Northern California older adults.
Cameron Kaplan
University of Southern California, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Quantify how the COVID-19 pandemic changed racial and ethnic disparities in receipt of appropriate primary care, chronic disease management and downstream health outcomes, using longitudinal individual-level claims and billing data.
Lesliam Quiros-Alcala
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Determine whether hairstylists' exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including phthalates, their replacements and VOCs, are associated with menstrual cycle length, in salons primarily serving women of color.
The school
Harvard University: 42 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 712 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.