Female Fertility and the Body Fat Connection
208 pages
|
8 halftones, 12 line drawings, 1 table table
|
5-1/4 x 8
|
© 2002
Are girls entering puberty earlier than they used to? This question, which has been debated recently by doctors and scientists in the pages of Time magazine and the New York Times, proves that there is still a great deal to learn about women's reproductive health. Female Fertility and the Body-Fat Connection is the record of one scientist's groundbreaking and decades-long work on the connections among fertility, body fat, and reproductive health in women.
Rose E. Frisch explains here how, in women, a certain amount of body fat is crucial to the reproductive system and sexual maturation. Women who are too lean are infertile and cannot conceive children; young girls who are too thin have a delayed onset of their first period. Female Fertility and the Body-Fat Connection illuminates how and why a "critical fitness" level underlies a woman's reproductive health. In the process Frisch gives readers a comprehensive view of the research done to date on the relationship between body composition and fertility and also describes her own journey as a woman scientist working to advance her critical-fitness hypothesis both to the general public and the scientific community. Frisch answers the questions every woman has about the desirable weight for health and fertility and even includes tables to help women find their own best weight. She also demonstrates how important diet and exercise are for the long-term reproductive health of women, and shows what factors influence the onset of puberty in girls.
Each milestone of the reproductive life span is affected by food intake and energy output, the factors affecting the storage of fat. Female Fertility and the Body-Fat Connection is a cornerstone to understanding the health of girls and women.
Rose E. Frisch explains here how, in women, a certain amount of body fat is crucial to the reproductive system and sexual maturation. Women who are too lean are infertile and cannot conceive children; young girls who are too thin have a delayed onset of their first period. Female Fertility and the Body-Fat Connection illuminates how and why a "critical fitness" level underlies a woman's reproductive health. In the process Frisch gives readers a comprehensive view of the research done to date on the relationship between body composition and fertility and also describes her own journey as a woman scientist working to advance her critical-fitness hypothesis both to the general public and the scientific community. Frisch answers the questions every woman has about the desirable weight for health and fertility and even includes tables to help women find their own best weight. She also demonstrates how important diet and exercise are for the long-term reproductive health of women, and shows what factors influence the onset of puberty in girls.
Each milestone of the reproductive life span is affected by food intake and energy output, the factors affecting the storage of fat. Female Fertility and the Body-Fat Connection is a cornerstone to understanding the health of girls and women.
"At a time when most medical findings seem to take place at the molecular level, it is refreshing to read the fascinating story of Rose Frisch's unfolding discovery of the relation between body fat and fertility. Reading more like a memoir than a scientific discussion, Female Fertility and the Body Fat Connection provides an autobiographical look at the thirty-plus years Frisch spent studying this relationship. . . . But, as her book reminds us, Frisch's most important contribution lies in making the critical connection that fat levels and fertility are inexorably related in human populations."--Science
"Although women tend to abhor body fat, it plays an important role in the reproductive process. . . . In her fascinating book, Frisch explains the intricate relationships among weight, body composition, and hormones. . . . Frisch's book provides a thoroughly understandable account of important scientific research that will provide women with the tools to regulate their health. Highly recommended."
Contents
Foreword, by Robert L. Barbieri
Acknowledgments
1. Female Body Fat: Celebrating the Difference
2. Too Little and Too Much Body Fat
3. Female Adolescence: Puberty and Growing Up
4. Eggs, Sperm, "Female Testes," and Other Fancies and Facts about the Reproductive System
5. Historical Guesses: What Hastened or Slowed Menarche?
6. Predicting Menarche: Critical Fatness
7. Pubertal Body Fat—Sex Fat?—A Neat Mechanism for Reproductive Success
8. Physical Activity and Too Little Fat: Ballet Dancers, Swimmers, Runners, and Other Athletes
9. Exercise and Lower Risk of Breast Cancer: The Alumnae Health Study
10. Leptin: A New Hormone Made by Body Fat
11. Population, Food Intake, and Fertility: Old and New Perspectives
12. Fatness, Fertility, and the Body Mass Index: Finding Your "Desirable Weight"
Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
Acknowledgments
1. Female Body Fat: Celebrating the Difference
2. Too Little and Too Much Body Fat
3. Female Adolescence: Puberty and Growing Up
4. Eggs, Sperm, "Female Testes," and Other Fancies and Facts about the Reproductive System
5. Historical Guesses: What Hastened or Slowed Menarche?
6. Predicting Menarche: Critical Fatness
7. Pubertal Body Fat—Sex Fat?—A Neat Mechanism for Reproductive Success
8. Physical Activity and Too Little Fat: Ballet Dancers, Swimmers, Runners, and Other Athletes
9. Exercise and Lower Risk of Breast Cancer: The Alumnae Health Study
10. Leptin: A New Hormone Made by Body Fat
11. Population, Food Intake, and Fertility: Old and New Perspectives
12. Fatness, Fertility, and the Body Mass Index: Finding Your "Desirable Weight"
Glossary
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
Google preview here
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.
