How do your hormones affect your joints?

Summary

We want to understand how female hormones across the menstrual cycle affect the knee in people with and without conditions that cause loose joints.

The clinical conditions we are interested in studying are Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS).

We also want to compare our findings to people with no history of these conditions.

Eligibility

Currently recruiting participants: Yes

Eligible gender: Male, Female, Transgender, Other

Eligible ages: 18 to 35

Accepts healthy participants: Yes

Inclusion criteria:

1. Age 18 - 35
2. Female sex
3. Regular menstrual cycles (every 25 - 31 days for at least the past 1 year)

We are looking for people EITHER with
1. A diagnosis of Hypermobile Spectrum Disorders or hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, OR
2. People who do not have these conditions and are otherwise healthy

Exclusion criteria:

1. Estrogen or progesterone use (oral, transdermal, depo, vaginal) in the last 3 months
2. Testosterone use (oral, intramuscular, transdermal) in the last 3 months
3. Corticosteroid use (oral, intramuscular, intravenous) in the last 3 months
4. Pregnant within the last 12 months
5. Currently breastfeeding
6. Previous right knee injury
7. Other connective tissue disorder (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome, Down syndrome, etc.)
8. Using a wheelchair for day-to-day mobility

Participate

Fill out the following form if you want to participate in this research

Method of contact

Collection of personal information
Your personal information is collected under the authority of section 33(c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. If you have any questions about the collection or use of this information, please visit our Access to Information page.

Additional information

Contact information

Please contact our research team by email.

Principal investigator:

Ranita Manocha

Clinical trial:

No

REB-ID:

REB23-1183