Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2026
In Vivo and Ex Vivo Approaches to Study Ovarian Cancer Metastatic Colonization of Milky Spot Structures in Peritoneal Adipose
Published on: October 14, 2015
Frequency of premature menopause in women who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation
Amy Finch1, Adriana Valentini, Ellen Greenblatt
1Familial Breast Cancer Research, Women's College Research Institute Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
To evaluate the impact of carrying a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation on the probability of experiencing premature natural menopause.
Design:
Observational study.
Setting:
Patients in an academic research environment.
Patient(S):
Women who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation (case subjects) and women who do not carry a mutation (control subjects).
Intervention(S):
Survey about reproductive history administered on study entry and every 2 years thereafter.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
The impact of carrying a BRCA mutation on age at menopause and other factors, including parity, age at first birth, age at last birth, and self-reported fertility.
Result(S):
A total of 908 matched pairs were identified. The mean age at natural menopause was 48.8 years for BRCA1 carriers, 49.2 years for BRCA2 carriers, and 50.3 years for control subjects. Women who carried a BRCA mutation had parity similar to noncarriers and were as likely as noncarriers to have a child after age 35 years. Similar proportions reported a history of fertility problems (12.5% vs. 13.7%) and use of fertility medication (6.0% vs. 7.0%).
Conclusion(S):
Women who carry a BRCA mutation experience menopause earlier, on average, than women who do not have a mutation, but the difference is small and does not appear to affect fertility.
More Related Videos
08:53Identifying the Effects of BRCA1 Mutations on Homologous Recombination using Cells that Express Endogenous Wild-type BRCA1
Published on: February 17, 2011
08:15gDNA Enrichment by a Transposase-based Technology for NGS Analysis of the Whole Sequence of BRCA1, BRCA2, and 9 Genes Involved in DNA Damage Repair
Published on: October 6, 2014
Related Concept Videos
01:28Menopause
01:20Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...
01:36Mismatch Repair
02:07Oogenesis
01:49Probability Laws
01:24Disorders of the Female Reproductive System