Ages at menopause and menarche in a high-altitude Himalayan population

Women in a Tibetan speaking population living at 3250-3560 m in Upper Chumik, Nepal, have median ages at menopause and menarche of 46.8 and 16.2 years, respectively, assessed by the status quo technique. Recalled ages at menopause and menarche yield similar results and suggest a long-term existence of a pattern of relatively accelerated age at menopause and delayed age at menarche. Variation in the length of the calculated biological reproductive span in this sample is more strongly associated with recalled age at menopause than recalled age at menarche. The age at menopause in Upper Chumik is accelerated relative to that reported for Western industrial populations; however, these data do not permit drawing conclusions about the reasons underlying the acceleration.