Does this ad for clinical studies volunteers seem odd to you?

[JessieMcJessie]

Was in today’s London Evening Standard.
Starts by saying they want “healthy” volunteers aged 18 to 35 but then say that females must have no periods or infrequent periods, but not be on oral contraception. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms, and going to be a really small number of people? And I’d have thought they’d lead with “women under 35 who have no periods wanted” rather than start with healthy non-smoker and throw in the period but at the end.

It’s about hormones so I wonder if women on Mirena are acceptable?

It almost made me wonder if it was a scam. If genuine, Imperial is of course a world-leading university but it just looks very weird.

You can be otherwise healthy but not have regular periods (unfortunately!).

I think they're trialling that drug for IVF so makes sense.

I think It's a screwup!!
See here, on their website, they say women must have regular periods.

"We at Imperial College are interested in finding out the effects of hormones that control reproduction. We’re looking for healthy female volunteers aged 18-35 who have regular periods or irregular periods and are not on any contraceptive medicine, as well as healthy male volunteers aged 18-35 to participate in this trial. Volunteers will be screened for their suitability and if eligible will be invited to attend study visits, where regular blood tests will be taken. Expenses up to £200 per day will be paid."

If it's a screwup, I wonder how much money they wasted on that advert.

oh well, my own screwup, i meant 2 say "they must have periods, regular or not"... anyway, I'm not clever enough to make ImperialCL size screwups.

They might be comparing two groups?

Why put in an ad just for the irregular/no periods group in the paper, why not recruit for both arms with the one expensive advert. Doesn't make sense. Neah, 100% this is copy edit problem.

Time commitment is a lot, they'll have a high drop out rate, they need to do heavy recruitment if they want more than small number of participants.

"One whole day visit, and a single blood test on each of the following two mornings, every month for up to six months"

I think I’d be checking with the Research Ethics Committee responsible for studies being carried out at Imperial College to make sure that this is a study they’ve approved.
I’m well out of the loop now, but I was once an Administrator for a Research Ethics Committee. Rules may well have changed, but when I was involved every detail of a study was scrutinised, including patient information sheets and newspaper advertisements before approval was granted to enable them to be undertaken. This advert would never have been approved as written or if it was, it shouldn’t have been as it doesn’t make sense.

Contacting the REC seems overkill. It's just a screwup in the advert and only distress to participants would be if disappointment by those who don't get the £200 to take part, after bothering to get in touch.
I think they use Queen Charlotte's REC if this article is indicative, research is actually at Hammersmith hospital.

It was in the Standard again today, same wording.