Menstruation: a wound with wonders and woes

With Hilary Critchley, MD
Professor of Reproductive Medicine, University of Edinburgh

Prof Hilary Critchley, MD, DSc, FRCOG, is Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and internationally recognized for her pioneering work on uterine physiology and pathophysiology. She co-chaired initiatives in FIGO to develop the PALM COEIN rubric for parsing mechanisms of abnormal menstrual bleeding in the clinic, and she has published seminal work illuminating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the process of menstruation. Among her many honors, she is an international member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

Much taboo still surrounds the process of menstruation, but it is a fascinating process that holds many lessons for regenerative medicine. The dawn of “Menstruation Science” promises to demystify the process, not only helping hundreds of millions of women around the world who suffer from poorly-understood menstrual disorders, but also countless others who may benefit from its lessons.

The MIT Center for Gynepathology Research focuses on groundbreaking research in three areas, to accelerate earlier diagnosis and more successful treatment of endometriosis:

• the wide range of ways endometriosis / adenomyosis afflicts patients,

• the diversity of patient responses to available therapies for these common and morbid diseases, and

• the failure of many patients to respond to any existing therapies.