Hormones and Water and Electrolyte Metabolism 83 



studied 23 normal young women and found that in one-third 

 of them the weight was maximal during the premenstrual 

 eight days — in accordance with earlier writers. Closer 

 analysis, however, failed to substantiate the physiological 

 basis of such weight gains, since, when they did occur, they 



m.E(i./l 



AEL 



10 15 20 25 30 35 40 

 CYCLE DAYS 



Fig. 2. A long, but ovular, cycle in a normal woman. 



were slight and were not repeated from one cycle to the next. 

 It was further shown that the incidence of premenstrual 

 weight gain was the same as would be expected on a purely 

 random distribution of weight gains throughout the menstrual 

 cycle. These workers also studied the salivary sodium and 

 Na/K ratios throughout the cycle; they were unable to find 

 any consistent pattern of variations such as would have been 



