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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Scientists have identified genetic factors that influence the age at which a woman experiences menopause, and they said the discovery could eventually help improve fertility treatments.
Dutch researchers analyzed data from nine international studies that involved more than 10,000 menopausal women. They identified 20 single necleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in four different places on chromosomes 19 and 20 that had never been identified before, researchers said. Scientists have not yet determined which parts of the body they might affect, but they speculated that it is likely the ovaries or the brain.
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We found that the 20 SNPs were all related to a slightly earlier menopause, and women who had one of them experienced menopause nearly a year earlier than others. We know that 10 years before menopause, women are much less fertile, and five years before, many are infertile, researcher Lisette Stolk of Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, was quoted as saying. In Western countries where women tend to have children later in life and closer to menopause, age at menopause can be an important factor in whether or not a particular woman is able to become a mother.
She said one day, researchers may be able to screen women who are having difficulties getting pregnant for one or more of these variants and perhaps interfere with the physiological pathways in order to delay infertility.
SOURCE: Study presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics on May 25, 2009
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