Janet W. McArthur papers

Janet Ward McArthur (1914-2006), A.B. and M.S., 1937, University of Washington; M.B. and M.D., 1942, Northwestern University Medical School, was Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology (1972-1984) and co-director of the Vincent Memorial Hospital Laboratory (1977-1979) at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research interests included the thyroid gland, use of bioassays, menstruation, ovulation, polycystic ovary syndrome, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and the hormonal effects of exercise.She discovered that levels of LH peak during the middle of the menstrual cycle, triggering ovulation; LH is present in pre-pubertal children; and menopause coincides with increases in LH and FSH. She also investigated the relationships between LH and polycystic ovary syndrome, and between weight loss and menstruation.

McArthur was born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1914 to Hyland Donald and Alice Frost McArthur. She attended Western Washington University and the University of Washington, graduating with an A.B. and M.S. in pre-medics and psychology, magna cum laude, in 1935. She attended Northwestern University Medical School from 1937 to1942, earning her M.D. McArthur began her career at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1943 as a resident, and studied endocrinology at the MGH Thyroid Clinic (1945). McArthur left MGH for one year to work in the Metabolic Disease Unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota (1947-1948). She then completed a fellowship in adolescent endocrinology in the MGH Pediatrics Department (1948-1950). In 1950, she received her first appointment as instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. From 1951 to 1984, McArthur researched, taught, and treated patients in a variety of appointments at MGH, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. In 1972, McArthur became the first woman appointed to a full professorship at MGH. From 1977 to 1979, McArthur was the co-director of MGH's Vincent Memorial Hospital Laboratory. Although McArthur became a professor emeritus in 1984, she continued to teach and carry out research at Boston University and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, University of London, during the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1952, McArthur co-authored Functional Endocrinology from Birth through Adolescence. From 1963 to1967, she served on the Subcommittee on Standards of the Pituitary Hormone Distribution Committee of the Endocrinology Study Section of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases. From 1965 to 1970, McArthur served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and from 1967 to 1970, worked on bioassay standardization, culminating in the publication of Statistics in Endocrinology; Proceedings. Altogether, McArthur published 113 articles between 1939 and 1995 on endocrinology and gynecology.

In 1976, McArthur helped found Women in Endocrinology, a national association which seeks to advance the careers of female endocrinologists. She died in Needham, Massachusetts in 2006.

For more information about McArthur's life, see: "Janet Ward McArthur: Faculty of Medicine — Memorial Minute." Harvard Gazette 01 May 2008.