This volume features the results of a meeting held at the National Institutes of Health to advance the goals of having the menstrual cycle accepted and understood as a marker of general health in adolescent girls and defining a related research agenda. Specific topics covered in the volume include: (1) normal processes of the adolescent menstrual cycle, including menarche, the psychology of puberty, and cultural perceptions and practices surrounding menarche; (2) disease processes and the adolescent menstrual cycle, including genetic mechanisms of amenorrhea, Turner syndrome, FMR1 premutation, galactosemia, disorders of sexual differentiation, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, chronic disease, chemotherapy, autoimmune oophoritis, premature ovarian failure, and polycystic ovary syndrome; (3) bridging normal and abnormal processes, including amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, adolescent antecedents to adult reproductive disorders, bone health, and HRT in the adolescent; (4) modern dilemmas and the adolescent menstrual cycle, including developmental delay, obesity, exercise-induced amenorrhea, eating disorders, stress-induced amenorrhea, and amenorrhea induced by medications; (5) the synthesis of the volume consisting of a contribution on the transition to adulthood.NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas. ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http://www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member