Childbirth close to natural menopause: does age at menopause matter?

Abstract

This study showed that more than 50% of the women who reached menopause before the age of 45 years had had a successful pregnancy within 10 years prior to natural menopause. Among women with menopause in their mid-fifties, less than 1% had had a successful pregnancy within the 10 years before natural menopause. ABSTRACTResearch question: Does a successful spontaneous pregnancy in the years close to natural menopause depend on age at menopause?Design: This was a retrospective population-based study of 4157 parous postmenopausal women in Norway, born during the years 1925-1940. Data were obtained by two self-administered questionnaires in the HUNT2 Survey (1995)(1996)(1997). We calculated the proportions of women who gave birth within 5 years and within 10 years prior to menopause both among all women, and according to categories of age at menopause. Results:Overall, 2.7% (114/4157) of all women gave birth within 5 years, and 11.7% (487/4157) gave birth within 10 years, prior to menopause. Among women with menopause before the age of 45 years, 23.5% (81/344) gave birth within 5 years, and 55.5% (191/344) gave birth within 10 years, before menopause. Among the women with menopause at the age of 55 years or older, no women (0/474) gave birth within 5 years, and 0.2% (1/474) gave birth within 10 years, prior to menopause. Conclusions:More than half of the women with menopause before the age of 45 years gave birth within the 10 years before natural menopause, whereas virtually no women with menopause at the age of 55 years or older did. Thus, the length of the sterile interval before natural menopause may vary by age at menopause.

Can time to menopause be predicted?

“…For women experiencing early menopause, however, the fertile window is closing later than would be predicted by the fixed interval hypothesis. 30…”

An evolutionary perspective on kin care directed up the generations

“…It should be noted that the validity of applying this hypothesis could be brought into question based on the age of the women in this data. Our sample included only women aged 55 or 56, and based on reproductive norms and oocyte degradation, even if the women were still menstruating at this age, it is unlikely they would actually reproduce 34,35 . Further to this, the parents of the women in this study are, on average, in their early 80s (Supplementary Table S1), and evidence has shown that the elderly's benefits as allocarers declines with age 36 , which would suggest that the returns on filial care would also decline.…”

Ovarian cortical follicle density in infertile women with low anti-Müllerian hormone

“…Fortunately for these women recent studies imply that the oocyte itself is comparable to age-paired controls in relation to fertilization rates as well as live birth rates [25], reviewed in [26]. In addition, a new epidemiological study reporting pregnancies 5 and 10 years prior to menopause according to age at menopause found that 24% of the women with menopause before the age of 45 years gave birth within 5 years before menopause [27]. This reinforces the perception that the three-stage reproductive timeframe is not applicable for all women.…”