The relation of age at menarche with age at natural menopause: a population study of 336 788 women in Norway

Abstract

STUDY QUESTIONIs age at menarche associated with age at menopause or with duration of the reproductive period (interval between menarche and menopause)?SUMMARY ANSWERThe association of age at menarche with age at menopause was weak and non-linear, and the duration of the reproductive period decreased by increasing age at menarche.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYIt remains uncertain whether age at menarche is associated with age at menopause. Some studies report that women with early menarche also have early menopause. Other studies report that women with early menarche have late menopause, or they report no association. The duration of the reproductive period may be an indicator of the cumulative endogenous exposure to estrogens and progestogens during life course and is associated with risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONA retrospective cohort study of 336 788 women, aged 48–71 years, in the BreastScreen Norway during the years 2006–2014 was performed.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSInformation about age at menarche and menopausal status was obtained by self-administered questionnaires. We used time to event approaches to estimate the associations.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCEMedian age at menopause was 51 years in most menarche groups. Women with menarche at age 16 years or age ≥ 17 years had menopause 1 year later [median: 52 years, interquartile range (IQR): 49–54 years] than women with menarche at age 13 years (median: 51 years, IQR: 49–54 years, reference) (crude hazard ratio (HR) = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.93–0.97 and 0.95; 95% CI: 0.92–0.99, Pnon-linearity < 0.001). The reproductive period decreased with increasing age at menarche (Pnon-linearity < 0.001), and women with menarche at age ≤ 9 years had 9 years longer median reproductive period than women with menarche at age ≥ 17 years (median: 43 versus 34 years). Adjustment for year of birth did not change the HR estimates notably.LARGE SCALE DATANot applicable.LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONInformation about age at menarche and age at menopause was based on self-reports. Particularly for age at menarche, the long time interval between the event and data collection may have caused imprecise reporting.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGSOur study suggests that age at menarche is a strong indicator for the duration of women’s reproductive period. Our findings should encourage studies of the independent role of duration of the reproductive period on the risk of breast cancer and endometrial cancer, since these cancers have been associated with exposure to estrogens and progestogens.STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)The present study was funded by the Norwegian Cancer Society [Grant number 6863294-2015]. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Reproductive Correlates of Natural Age at Menopause: A Study on the Minyong of Arunachal Pradesh

“…This may be because menarche is the first life event that occurs just after one decade of life, whereas menopause occurs after four or five decades of life-time enough for the two events to become completely dissociated (Sievert, 2006). A similar kind of result is also evident in other studies (Bjelland, Hofvind, Byberg, & Eskild, 2018;Van Noord et al, 1997;Yasui et al, 2012). Age at menopause and age at menarche have been associated with the health of the women (Day et al, 2015;Dossus et al, 2010).…”

Factors that influence natural menopause onset in China: a cross-sectional study

“…Our research showed that weight may be related to the age of menopause, which is consistent with the report by other papers [21][22][23][24]. The age of menarche was signi cantly related to the age of menopause, similar to previous research in Norwegian women [25]. People with earlier menarche age have earlier menopause; those with later menarche age have relatively late menopause age.…”

Current ecology, not ancestral dispersal patterns, influences menopause symptom severity

“…Hence, it may be that the insignificant relationship is due to a lack of clarity within the data. Although, the results do suggest that women who have smoked and have a lower BMI enter menopause earlier, which is in line with previous research (Ayatollahi et al, 2005;Bjelland et al, 2018;Gold et al, 2001Gold et al, , 2000McKnight et al, 2011;Nagel et al, 2005;Özdemir & Çöl, 2004;Parazzini, 2007;Sapre & Thakur, 2014;Tao et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2018), suggesting that the data are, to an extent, capturing significant behavioral and lifestyle influences on menopause timing even if women were only estimating when they experienced menopause. We also observe that women who have more children report an earlier ANM, and on average women who live away from their natal group have higher parity.…”

“…Covariates were held constant in each analyses and selected based on existing literature on the demographic correlates of menopause symptoms and timing, and also based on the data we had available. These included parity (Li et al, ; Mishra et al, ; Parazzini, ; Wang et al, ), whether the woman was financially secure over the past year (as a measure of socioeconomic position/financial stress; Lawlor, Ebrahim, & Smith, ; Schoenaker, Jackson, Rowlands, & Mishra, ), body mass index (BMI; Ahuja, ; Li et al, ; Maru, Verma, Verma, & Shrimal, ; Parazzini, ; Sapre & Thakur, ; Tao et al, ; Wang et al, ; Zhu et al, ), and smoking habits (Ayatollahi, Ghaem, & Ayatollahi, ; Bjelland, Hofvind, Byberg, & Eskild, ; Gold et al, , ; McKnight et al, ; Nagel, Altenburg, Nieters, Boffetta, & Linseisen, ; Özdemir & Çöl, ; Parazzini, ; Sapre & Thakur, ; Tao et al, ; Wang et al, ). In addition, age was included in the model when looking at symptom duration and symptom severity, and menopause status when looking at symptom severity, to control for the possibility that retrospective accounts of menopause may differ to current reporting.…”