Scientists Report First Step Towards a Genetic Test to Predict Early Menopause
18 October 2010 – Scientists have found four genes that affect risk of early menopause, a discovery that could lead to a test to predict a woman’s reproductive lifespan.
The study from scientists at the ICR and the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School compared 2,000 women from the Breakthrough Generations Study who had experienced early menopause with a matched control group of the same number.
They examined four genetic variants that had already been linked to variation in age of normal menopause, and found these variants were significantly more common in women who had experienced early menopause. The more variants a woman possessed – up to a total of eight when all four variants were found on both sets of chromosomes - the higher her risk of early menopause.
The findings are the first stage in developing an easy and relatively inexpensive genetic test that could help identify the one in 20 UK women who may be affected by early menopause. A woman’s ability to conceive decreases on average ten years before she starts the menopause. A test to help predict the end of a woman’s reproductive life could assist in family planning decisions.
“We have made a valuable step towards helping women across the country identify and predict whether they are at risk of early menopause. This may in turn allow them to make informed decisions about their future fertility,” Professor Anthony Swerdlow from the ICR says.
This research is the first to be published from the Breakthrough Generations Study, a large and comprehensive examination of the causes of breast cancer and a partnership between Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the ICR. The study will follow the 100,000 UK women participants for the next 40 years to unravel the lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors that cause the disease.
