Age at menarche in relation to maternal use of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, and tea during pregnancy.
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.
Windham
Gayle C
GC
Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, California Department of Health Services, Oakland, CA, USA. gwindham@dhs.ca.gov
Bottomley
Christian
C
Birner
Cecilie
C
Fenster
Laura
L
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
D003069:Coffee; D013662:Tea