As a biological anthropologist I have focused on age at menopause and symptom experience at menopause as two aspects of human variation. I am also interested in the evolution of menopause and post-reproductive aging as a human trait. Fieldwork on the topic of menopause has taken me from western Massachusetts to Mexico (1994-2000), Slovenia (2002), and Paraguay (2003). Ongoing research questions include: Is there ethnic variation in concordance between subjective and objective measures of hot flashes? Do women with hot flashes have more variation in blood pressure and heart rate compared to women without hot flashes? Do levels of FSH and estradiol change in the same way in women across diverse populations -- i.e., are the biological changes associated with peri-menopause universal? Are there universal correlates of age and symptom experience at menopause (e.g., smoking habits) or are correlates culture-specific?

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