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Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and risk of preeclampsia

Dejene F Abetew1, Daniel A Enquobahrie, Michal Dishi

  • 1Center for Perinatal Studies, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.

ISRN Obstetrics and Gynecology
|January 21, 2012
PubMed

We examined associations of age at menarche and menstrual characteristics with the risk of preeclampsia among participants (n = 3,365) of a pregnancy cohort study. Data were collected using in-person interviews and medical record abstraction. Logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). There was a significant inverse association between age at menarche and risk of preeclampsia (P value for trend < 0.05). Association of long cycle length (>36 days) with higher risk of preeclampsia was present only among women who had prepregnancy body mass index <25 kg/m(2) (interaction P value = 0.04). Early menarche is associated with higher risk of preeclampsia. Prepregnancy weight may modify associations of long menstrual cycles with risk of preeclampsia.

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