Mother's menopausal age is associated with her daughter's early follicular phase urinary follicle-stimulating hormone level.
OBJECTIVE
Early follicular phase follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), a marker of ovarian reserve, has been used to predict time to menopause. A mother's age at menopause is related to her daughter's age at menopause, possibly because of genetic factors. In this study we sought to determine the relationship between maternal age at menopause and early follicular phase FSH of premenopausal daughters.


METHODS
The Uterine Fibroid Study enrolled women randomly selected from a prepaid health plan, collected questionnaire data, and obtained early follicular phase urine samples for a subset of participants. For this secondary analysis, premenopausal women between the ages of 35 and 46 years, who provided a urine sample on cycle day 2, 3, 4, or 5 and their mother's age at natural menopause (n = 182) were selected from the original cohort. Initially bivariate analysis and subsequently regression modeling were performed to assess the independent relationship between maternal age at menopause and urinary creatinine-corrected FSH.


RESULTS
Unadjusted analyses and those adjusting for age (mean +/- SD, 40.5 +/- 3.2 y), smoking status (16% current smokers), and body mass index (26.8 +/- 6.9 kg/m) showed a significant association between maternal age at menopause and daughter's urinary FSH level (P < 0.04). Women whose mothers experienced earlier menopause had higher urinary FSH levels.


CONCLUSIONS
The significantly increased FSH values among women whose mothers experienced early menopause is consistent with previously reported associations between mother's and daughter's age of menopause. FSH, a marker of ovarian reserve, is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Future epidemiologic studies on FSH should include collection of information on maternal age at menopause.
Steiner
Anne Z
AZ
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. asteiner@med.unc.edu
Baird
Donna D
DD
Kesner
James S
JS
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone / Q000652:urine*; D005498:Follicular Phase / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause / Q000652:urine*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000502:physiology*; D010050:Ovarian Function Tests; D044384:Ovulation Prediction; D012044:Regression Analysis
D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone
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