I’m currently developing a short sci-fi film about birth control that focuses on the concept of genetic modification, the women in this world being born infertile/sterile. What I need more information on is how this would effect development/puberty. If a women didn’t have a menstrual cycle, but still had reproductive organs, would they still go through puberty; grow breasts, pubic hair etc? I’m assuming the onset of puberty is what starts the menstrual cycle, and if so, how different would hormone production be if there was no cycle?
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If the had ovaries but no womb they would develop breasts and body hair but not get their period.
Multiple factors are involved in female infertility. What missing factor causes the infertility would have an effect on what other effects happen. So- no eggs, disrupted or absent hormones, blocked tubes, on and on. Different factors causing the infertility, will have different answers about puberty and secondary sexual characteristics.
Reproductive cycle depends on hormones….not the other way around. You have to decide what changes these women / girls will have undergone with this genetic modification. Are they born without reproductive organs? Then no cycle, no hormones, no secondary sexual characteristics (no puberty) If they are born with reproductive organs but for some reason aren’t having a menstrual cycle (you’d have to make up a reason for this….wouldn’t happen in the real world) then you’d get normal puberty and secondary sexual characteristics. More realistically…you could just make them sterile……Say the girl children are blasted with radiation so all their eggs are FUBAR….they’d still cycle normally and look like normal women but no pregnancy would ever result.
This depends on what effect you want. If you want puberty, menstruation, etc. making the eggs non-viable would be the way to go. This way normal biology is preserved, but fertilization does not occur. One way to do this may be to make them unable to complete meiosis. Alternatively, oocyte agenesis (but preserving the rest of the follicle), complete failure of follicle rupture (maybe with resorption of content, see PCOS) will achieve the same effect.
If you don’t want sexual maturity (lose all secondary sexual characteristics), then you can play around with the production or response to GnRH, FSH/LH, oestrogen/progesterone (each hormone from left to right stimulates production of the next one), not having ovaries.
You can try physical methods as well, such as uterine agenesis (although you may need to provide ovum cleanup methods) or extreme imperforate hymen (may be surgically managed; blood and ovum cleanup required).
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