title: Early age at menopause among left-handed women.
abstract: Associations have been suggested between handedness, autoimmune disorders, and reproductive hormonal changes. The purpose of this study was to test a proposed relationship between handedness and age at menopause. Two national survey data sets were used to compare recalled ages at menopause. Mexican-American women, ages 35-74, naturally postmenopausal for at least 1 year, were selected from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES). White and black women were selected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-I) using similar criteria. The mean age at menopause was found to be earlier among left-handed women than right-handed women from the NHANES-I data set. In the HHANES data set, the mean age at menopause was significantly earlier among left-handed women than in right-handed women (t = 2.35, P less than .05). Early age at menopause among left-handed women may result from misclassification of handedness among older women or differential mortality among left-handed individuals. Alternatively, the association may be related to possible correlations between left-handedness and autoimmune disorders, which may include reactions against hormone receptor sites and oocytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Albany.
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Leidy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause / Q000208:ethnology / Q000502:physiology*; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D008875:Middle Aged; D013223:Statistics as Topic