The relation of season of birth to severity of menopausal symptoms

Cagnacci, Angelo; Pansini, F.; Bacchi-Modena, Alberto; Volpe, Annibale

doi:10.1097/01.gme.0000196594.82452.83

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…Research suggests an increased prevalence of emotional behavioral disorders, including broader internalizing problems (Greer, 2005; Polizzi, Martin, & Dombrowski, 2007), as well as behavioral inhibition (a predictor of anxiety; Gortmaker, Kagan, Caspi, & Silva, 1997) and specific anxiety symptoms (Greer, 2005; Parker & Neilson, 1976) associated with spring births. Fetal central nervous system development is thought to be negatively affected due to the increase in influenza and maternal ill health during winter months, when mothers of spring babies are pregnant (Cagnacci, Pansini, Bacchi-Modena, Volpe, & Emilia-Romagna Operative Group for Menopause, 2006; Laplante, Brunet, & King, 2016). While both explanations are plausible, direct assessment of maternal ill health, and the mechanisms that may be involved in the transmission of exposure to a disaster (i.e., maternal/fetal blood and placentas) resulting in specific anxiety symptoms, are needed to clarify our finding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of prenatal maternal stress in the development of childhood anxiety symptomatology: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

et al. 2018

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It is possible that findings suggesting a link between prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) and anxiety symptoms in offspring are confounded by postnatal and/or shared mother-child heritability effects. Following exposure to a natural disaster, the Queensland Flood Study investigated the unique and additive effects of various types of disaster-related PNMS (objective hardship, cognitive appraisal, and subjective distress) on childhood anxiety symptomatology (internalizing and/or anxiety symptom measures). Timing of flood exposure during pregnancy and child sex were examined as potential moderators. After controlling for maternal psychosocial factors, greater objective hardship as a result of the floods was significantly associated with greater anxiety symptoms (N = 114) and marginally associated with greater internalizing behaviors (N = 115). Earlier timing of the flood in pregnancy was associated with greater anxiety symptoms. No such associations were found between any PNMS measure and teacher-rated child internalizing behaviors (N = 90). Sex and timing did not moderate associations. Our findings suggest that, in isolation, increased maternal hardship due to exposure to an independent stressor, during pregnancy, may have a programming effect on childhood anxiety symptoms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of prenatal maternal stress in the development of childhood anxiety symptomatology: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

et al. 2018

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“…Similarly, a large body of research outside of economics has proven that season of birth is associated with health outcomes such as developing schizophrenia (Watson et al, 1984;Torrey et al, 1997;Davies et al, 2003;and Tochigi et al, 2004), autism (Gillberg, 1990), dyslexia (Livingston et al, 1993), severity of menopausal symptoms (Cagnacci et al, 2006), extreme shyness (Gortmaker et al, 1997), risk for suicide (Rock et al, 2006) and life expectancy among the elderly (Costa and Lahey, 2005;and Doblhammer et al, 2005). Research has even suggested an association between season of birth and self-reported "luckiness" (Chotai and Wiseman, 2005) and season of birth and the likelihood of being left-handed (Martin and Jones, 1999).…”

Section: Season Of Birth and Later Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Season of Birth and Later Outcomes: Old Questions, New Answers

Buckles¹,

Hungerman²

2008

218

255

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Research has found that season of birth is associated with later health and professional outcomes; what drives this association remains unclear. In this paper we consider a new explanation: that children born at different times in the year are conceived by women with different socioeconomic characteristics. We document large seasonal changes in the characteristics of women giving birth throughout the year in the United States. Children born in the winter are disproportionally born to women who are more likely to be teenagers and less likely to be married or have a high school degree. We show that controls for family background characteristics can explain up to half of the relationship between season of birth and adult outcomes. We then discuss the implications of this result for using season of birth as an instrumental variable; our findings suggest that, though popular, season-of-birth instruments may produce inconsistent estimates. Finally, we find that some of the seasonality in maternal characteristics is due to summer weather differentially affecting fertility patterns across socioeconomic groups. Research across the social and natural sciences has consistently found that the month of a child's birth is associated with later outcomes involving health, educational attainment, earnings and mortality. Much of this work shows that on average individuals born in the winter have worse outcomes (less schooling, lower wages) than other individuals. What drives this association remains unclear. Some prior work has speculated that this association may be driven by social and natural factors (such as compulsory schooling laws, changes in temperature, or exposure to illness) that could affect children born in the winter in particular ways, but there is no consensus about the importance of these or other explanations. Kasey Buckles Department of EconomicsMoreover, most work has explicitly dismissed the possibility that seasonality in outcomes might reflect inherent differences in personal attributes or family background. For example, Hoogerheide et al. (2007) write, "one's birthday is unlikely to be correlated with personal attributes other than age at school entry"; Kleibergen (2002) writes, "quarter of birth is randomly distributed over the population"; and in a survey on the returns to schooling literature, Card (1999) concludes that relationships between wages, education, and season of birth "are probably not caused by differences in family background." These claims are often made (or implicitly relied upon) in the large body of work using season of birth as an instrumental-variable. 1Yet despite the widespread use of season of birth as an instrumental variable and the assertion among researchers that family background is unrelated to season of birth, we know of no rigorous investigation of the relation between season of birth and family background. In this paper we undertake such an investigation. Using data from live birth certificates and the census, we first see whether the typical woman giving birth in...

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“…A study on modern Italian women described that menopause-associated symptoms were highest in women born in June and lowest after birth in November [41]. German girls born in August were reported to experience menarche four months later than those born in October [37], supporting the finding of a later age at menarche in South African girls born in late summer and early autumn [36].…”

Section: Season Of Birth Effects On Reproduction In Womenmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…A variety of studies provide evidence that seasonal factors present during fetal or early postnatal reproductive development might affect reproductive characteristics later in life, such as fertility [29][30][31][32], offspring count [33][34][35], reproductive lifespan [34], birth seasonality of the offspring [29,33], age at menarche [36,37], seasonality of menarche [38], timing of menopause [39,40], menopause-associated symptoms [41], menstrual disorders [39], twinning rate [42,43], birth weight [44,45], and sex ratio of the offspring [46,47].…”

Section: Season Of Birth Effects On Reproduction In Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Season of Birth Effects on Reproduction in Women

Huber¹,

Fieder²

2007

CWHR

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Environmental conditions experienced during foetal and neonatal life influence early development with potential long-term consequences for later life events. In many parts of the world, the external environment varies with the season. This includes factors such as photoperiod, climatic factors, nutrition or prevalence of infectious agents. Birth season is one surrogate for the environmental conditions experienced at conception, during pregnancy, around birth and during early postnatal life. The seasonal variation of environmental factors may thus influence early pre-and postnatal developmental processes differently in individuals born at different times of the year, causing respective downstream effects on later life events. Accordingly there is accumulating evidence that effects of birth season may impact a variety of physical, physiological and psychological parameters in humans. This review covers a survey of birth season effects on reproductive characteristics in women together with a discussion of possible causes, focussing on environmental factors that might play a central role during development, crucial periods of early development that might be influenced by these environmental factors, and potential underlying physiological mechanisms.

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The relation of season of birth to severity of menopausal symptoms

Abstract: In this study, we found a relationship between season of birth and some menopause-associated symptoms. Further study is needed to confirm these relationships and examine possible mechanisms.

Cited by 4 publications

References 30 publications

The role of prenatal maternal stress in the development of childhood anxiety symptomatology: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

The role of prenatal maternal stress in the development of childhood anxiety symptomatology: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

Season of Birth and Later Outcomes: Old Questions, New Answers

Season of Birth Effects on Reproduction in Women

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