Chapter 18 – Female Reproductive System

The female reproductive system is a complicated, hormone-dependent group of tissues that may provide an interpretative challenge. The objectives of this chapter are to equip the reader with the background for designing rigorous in vivo experiments, discerning and interpreting study-related findings, and thoughtfully applying these data for the purpose of human safety assessment. The chapter focuses on the most common species used in general toxicology studies—the rat, beagle dog, and cynomolgus monkey. There is a systematic description of the normal, dynamic tissue changes and endocrinology observed in these species during their reproductive cycle. The chapter then presents a review of the responses of the female reproductive system to various xenobiotics, and describes approaches to characterize mechanistically these patterns of toxicity.