Ladies, if your job requires you to change shifts every so often, then you may want to take extra care of yourselves. Science Daily reports that your work schedule may affect your reproductive health.
Reviewing previous studies between 1969 and January 2013, researchers analyzed data of 119,345 working women with regular and mixed shifts. They found that those who worked alternating shifts had a 33 percent increase in menstrual disruption as compared with those who worked regular hours. These women also increased their subfertility rate by 80 percent.
On the other hand, women who only worked the night shift did not have any menstrual or fertility issues, but results show that they may be prone to miscarriage risk.
Researchers theorize that body clock disruption caused by irregular shifts may be what’s responsible for the said changes. "Shift workers adopt poor sleep hygiene, suffer sleep deprivation, and develop activity levels that are out-of-sync with their body clock," Dr. Linden Stocker from the University of Southampton explains.
(Screencap of Mad Men courtesy of AMC)
