Figure 1.

A schematic of dominant sex hormone concentrations across the MC in naturally cycling women. A: hormonal fluctuations across an idealized (textbook) 28-day MC, with ovulation occurring on day 14. Hormone values in daily serum samples across the MC for naturally cycling women, adapted from Stricker et al. (6). Estradiol (B); progesterone (C); luteinizing hormone (D); follicle-stimulating hormone (E); and estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations overlapped (F). Solid lines represent median values; the colored area highlights the 95% confidence interval range. All figures are accompanied by a visual color gradient depicting changes in the respective hormone concentrations across the MC. E2, estradiol; FSH, follicle-stimulating hormone; LH, luteinizing hormone; MC, menstrual cycle; P4, progesterone. (6–8).