Heritability of menopausal age in mothers and daughters

Objective: To determine the heritability of age at natural menopause from mother-daughter pairs. Design: Two-generation families were selected to study heritability of menopausal age. Setting: Subjects were drawn from a population-based study. Patient(s): One hundred sixty-four mother-daughter pairs with a natural menopausal age. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): The heritability of age at natural menopause estimated by a random-effects model. Result(s): A heritability of 44% (95% confidence interval, 36%, 50%) was estimated. Conclusion(s): This study confirms that heritable components largely determine the natural age at menopause. Reasons for the differences between heritability estimates based on sibling pairs and parent-child comparisons are discussed. (C) 2004 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.