title: Age at menarche in relation to maternal use of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, and tea during pregnancy.
abstract: To investigate the potential effects of common early life exposures on age at menarche, the authors examined data collected in a follow-up study of pregnancies that occurred during the 1960s in California. Among 994 female offspring interviewed as adolescents, 98% had started their menstrual periods at a mean age of 12.96 years. After adjustment, the mean age at menarche was a few months earlier among girls whose mothers smoked a pack or more of cigarettes daily during pregnancy compared with unexposed girls (difference = -0.22 years, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.49, 0.05) and more so among girls who were not White (difference = -0.52 years, 95% CI: -1.1, 0.08). Girls with both high prenatal and childhood passive smoke exposure had an adjusted mean age at menarche about 4 months earlier than those unexposed. The daughter's mean age at menarche varied little by maternal prenatal alcohol consumption. Daughters of tea consumers had a later mean age (difference = 0.41 years at >/= 3 cups (0.7 liter)/day, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.80) and were more likely to start menarche later (>13 years) (odds ratio = 1.7, 95% CI: 0.91, 3.2), but daughters of coffee consumers did not. These suggestive findings, which merit further investigation, may be related to hormonal effects.
authors.affiliation: Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, California Department of Health Services, Oakland, CA, USA. gwindham@dhs.ca.gov
authors.forename: Gayle C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Windham
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bottomley
authors.forename: Cecilie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Birner
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fenster
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001724:Birth Weight; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D003069:Coffee / Q000009:adverse effects; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D016015:Logistic Models; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D008572:Menarche / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012495:San Francisco / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013662:Tea / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D003069:Coffee; D013662:Tea