[Biometric aspects of the menstrual cycle]

"In this paper we examine some biometric aspects of women's fertility cycle and we statistically test a hypothesis concerning the effects of hormone interactions on cycle temporal dynamics. The data base has been provided by the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council Centre...and concerns 31,290 cycles (belonging to 1,781 women), classified according to their length, the length of pre and post ovular phases and woman's age. The distributional model of cycle and phase lengths has been estimated by a kernel procedure and interesting statistical cause-effect relationships have been highlighted showing a sort of hormonal balancing action on the physiological process." (SUMMARY IN ENG)