Mothers and daughters menopausal ages: Is there a link?

Objective: to confirm whether there is a familial association in menopausal age between mothers and daughters. Design: questionnaire survey of women attending an osteoporosis screening programme. Subjects: 551 women who fulfilled the study inclusion criteria out of a random population sample of 2399 women aged between 45 to 54 living within 32 km of Aberdeen who were selected from the community health index. Results: 1758 women attended screening and completed the questionnaire. Of these only 1081 women were eligible being neither hormone replacement therapy users, nor had they had a hysterectomy. However, only 551 (51%) knew their mothers menopausal age. Women with premature (<40 years) and early menopause (<45 years) reported significantly lower maternal menopausal ages than women with normal menopausal ages (43.81, 45.40 and 48.38 for premature, early and normal women respectively p<0.0001). The odds of a woman having an early or premature menopause if their mother had experienced an early menopause was 6.02 (95% confidence interval 3.39 to 10.66). Conclusion: There seems to be a strong relationship between mothers and daughters menopausal age. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.