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Heritability of menopausal age in mothers and daughters
Kristel M van Asselt1, Helen S Kok, Peter L Pearson
1Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Objective:
To determine the heritability of age at natural menopause from mother-daughter pairs.
Design:
Two-generation families were selected to study heritability of menopausal age.
Setting:
Subjects were drawn from a population-based study.
Patient(S):
One hundred sixty-four mother-daughter pairs with a natural menopausal age.
Intervention(S):
None.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
The heritability of age at natural menopause estimated by a random-effects model.
Result(S):
A heritability of 44% (95% confidence interval, 36%, 50%) was estimated.
Conclusion(S):
This study confirms that heritable components largely determine the natural age at menopause. Reasons for the differences between heritability estimates based on sibling pairs and parent-child comparisons are discussed.
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