The idiopathic forms of premature menopause and early menopause show the same genetic pattern

Genetic factors may influence the timing of menopause. Premature ovarian fa ilure (POF) has recently been identified as a genetic entity, but no geneti c data are available on early menopause (EM). We investigated 36 patients w ith EM (age of menopause between 40 and 45 years of age) using cytogenetic and pedigree analysis. In 30 patients of this study the EM was idiopathic a nd 15 subjects (50%) had a familial condition of EM or POF. Pedigree analys is revealed a dominant pattern of inheritance of EM through maternal or pat ernal relatives. Our data reveal that POF and EM patients show the same gen etic features and we postulate that these conditions may be a variable expr ession of the same genetic disease.