Related Experiment Videos
Mothers and daughters menopausal ages: is there a link?
D J Torgerson1, R E Thomas, D M Reid
1National Primary Care Research and Development Centre (NPCRDC), University of York, Heslington, UK.
Objective:
To confirm whether there is a familial association in menopausal age between mothers and daughters.
Design:
questionnaire survey of women attending an osteoporosis screening programme.
Subjects:
551 women who fulfilled the study inclusion criteria out of a random population sample of 2399 women aged between 45 to 54 living within 32 km of Aberdeen who were selected from the community health index.
Results:
1758 women attended screening and completed the questionnaire. Of these only 1081 women were eligible being neither hormone replacement therapy users, nor had they had a hysterectomy. However, only 551 (51%) knew their mothers menopausal age. Women with premature (< 40 years) and early menopause (< 45 years) reported significantly lower maternal menopausal ages than women with normal menopausal ages (43.81, 45.40 and 48.38 for premature, early and normal women respectively p < 0.0001). The odds of a woman having an early or premature menopause if their mother had experienced an early menopause was 6.02 (95% confidence interval 3.39 to 10.66).
Conclusion:
There seems to be a strong relationship between mothers and daughters menopausal age.