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. 2012;25(5-6):459-66.
doi: 10.1515/jpem-2012-0047.

Environmental and genetic factors influence age at menarche in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Jessica Carroll  1 , Richa Saxena, Corrine K Welt
Affiliations

Environmental and genetic factors influence age at menarche in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Jessica Carroll et al. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2012.

Abstract

Objective: We hypothesized that body mass index (BMI) and DNA variants would predict age at menarche in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

Subjects: Subjects aged 18-45 years with PCOS defined by the National Institutes of Health criteria (n=522) and controls with regular menstrual cycles and no hyperandrogenism (n=472) were studied.

Methods: Age at menarche was compared between PCOS cases and controls and examined as a function of multiple parameters.

Results: There was a strong inverse relationship between BMI and age at menarche in PCOS (r=-0.32, p=5 x lO(-11)). The chromosome 6 rs7759938-T variant was associated with earlier age at menarche in women with PCOS (12.60 +/- 0.09 vs. 13.41 +/- 0.23 years; genotype TT vs. CC; p = 0.006). Age at menarche was predicted by PCOS status (beta = 0.512, p < 0.001), reported weight group at 10-14 years (beta = -0.432, p < 0.001), current BMI (beta = -0.0202, p = 0.01), and genotype (beta = 0.169, p = 0.02).

Conclusions: Age at menarche in women with PCOS is influenced by BMI and genetic variants near LIN28B.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age at menarche in women with PCOS (gray boxes) and controls (white boxes) as a function of reported weight group at ages 10 to 14 years. The line represents the median, boxes the 25th and 75th percent confidence limits and the black dots the age at menarche for outliers. The age at menarche was later in women with PCOS and controls whose weight was less than their peers (a vs. b; p<0.001) and lower in those whose weight was more than their peers (c vs. b; p<0.001) than in the group with a similar weight to that of their peers.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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