ArticleEvolution, medicine, and public health2015
Links among inflammation, sexual activity and ovulation: Evolutionary trade-offs and clinical implications.
Article in Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Inflammatory mechanisms of menstrual cycle changes following COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents.Vaccine · 2026Article
- Article
- Inflammation and Ovarian Function in Reproductive-Aged Women.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Do inflammation and relational motivation coordinate having better sex? The interplay between C-reactive protein and relational approach motivation on sexual well-being.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Inflammation as a Potential Mechanism Contributing to Sexual Functioning Following Initiation of Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy.Current sexual health reports · 2024Article
- Assessment of App-Based Versus Conventional Survey Modalities for Reproductive Health Research in India, South Africa, and the United States: Comparative Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Serum C-reactive protein levels are associated with clinical pregnancy rate afterFrontiers in endocrinology · 2023Article
- Sexual violence history predicts changes in vaginal immune parameters during sexual arousal.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- Review
- Putative Mental, Physical, and Social Mechanisms of Hormonal Influences on Postpartum Sexuality.Current sexual health reports · 2021Article
- Inflammation Predicts Sexual Arousability in Healthy Women.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Oxygen saturation during sleep as a predictor of inflammation in anovulatory women.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2021Article
- Systematic Analysis of Long Noncoding RNA and mRNA in Granulosa Cells during the Hen Ovulatory Cycle.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Inflammatory Markers in Dysmenorrhea and Therapeutic Options.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Review
- Interactions between inflammation and female sexual desire and arousal function.Current sexual health reports · 2019Article
- Profiles of gene expression in maternal blood predict offspring birth weight in normal pregnancy.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2019Article
- Falling in love is associated with immune system gene regulation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Article
- Partnered sexual activity moderates menstrual cycle-related changes in inflammation markers in healthy women: an exploratory observational study.Fertility and sterility · 2017Observational
- Testosterone and immune-reproductive tradeoffs in healthy women.Hormones and behavior · 2017Article
- Energetics and the immune system: Trade-offs associated with non-acute levels of CRP in adolescent Gambian girls.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesWe examined a mechanism that may coordinate trade-offs between reproduction and immune response in healthy women, namely, changes in inflammation across the ovarian cycle. METHODOLOGY: We investigated C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammation marker, across two consecutive ovarian cycles in 61 Bolivian women. Participants provided saliva samples every other day, and dried blood spots on 5-6 days spread across weeks 2-3 of each cycle. Cycles were characterized as ovulatory/anovulatory based on profiles of reproductive hormones. Participants also reported whether they were sexually partnered with a male or sexually abstinent during the study.
resultsHigh early-cycle, but not late-cycle, CRP was associated with anovulation. High inflammation at the end of one cycle was not associated with anovulation in the subsequent cycle. Among ovulatory cycles, women with sexual partners had significantly lower CRP at midcycle, and higher CRP at follicular and luteal phases; in contrast, sexually abstinent women had little cycle-related change in CRP. In anovulatory cycles, partnership had no effect on CRP. CRP varied significantly with socioeconomic status (higher in better-off than in poorer women). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: These findings suggest that the cycle-specific effect of inflammation on ovarian function may be a flexible, adaptive mechanism for managing trade-offs between reproduction and immunity. Sociosexual behavior may moderate changes in inflammation across the ovarian cycle, suggesting that these shifts represent evolved mechanisms to manage the trade-offs between reproduction and immunity. Clinically, these findings support considering both menstrual cycle phase and sexual activity in evaluations of pre-menopausal women's CRP concentrations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.