The Women’s Biobehavioral Health Program is aimed at understanding and enhancing women’s health at midlife and beyond. Led by Dr. Thurston, this program includes research, didactic, and clinical activities focused on women’s health and aging.
Ongoing studies in the laboratory include MsHeart/MsBrain and the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). The MsHeart/MsBrain studies are clinical studies investigating links between menopausal symptoms, sex hormones, and women’s cardiovascular and brain health at midlife. MsHeart/MsBrain has produced some of the seminal findings about menopausal symptoms and their implications for women’s cardiovascular and brain health. SWAN is one of the most comprehensive epidemiologic investigations of the menopause transition. Ongoing for over 20 years and including 3302 women across five racial/ethnic groups, SWAN is aimed at describing the natural history of the menopause transition and its implications for women’s health later in life. SWAN has provided critical information about the menopause transition. Other studies in the laboratory focus on interpersonal and sexual violence and its implications for women’s cardiovascular and brain health; findings have underscored the importance of sexual violence for women’s cardiovascular and neurocognitive health. The goal of this work is to address previously under-researched areas to provide critical information about women’s health as they age.
Other activities in the Women’s Biobehavioral Health Program include research training and clinical behavioral health service. Training activities focus on research training for predoctoral and postdoctoral scholars as well as junior faculty and are supported in part around a NIH T32-supported training program, the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program, and an NIH K24 award, Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Research in Women’s Cardiovascular Health. Finally, clinical activities focus on integrating behavioral health services into midlife gynecologic care and are conducted in in collaboration with the UPMC Magee Women’s Midlife Health Center.
Funding:
NIA/NIH R01 AG053504: Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms and Brain Imaging in Women
NIA/NIH U19 AG063720: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN): The Impact of Midlife and the Menopause Transition on Health and Functioning in Early Old Age
NHLBI/NIH K24 HL123565: Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Research in Women’s Cardiovascular Health
NHLBI/NIH K23 HL159293: Intimate Partner Violence and Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Midlife Women
NHLBI/NIH T32 HL007560: Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program