Age at menopause and childbearing patterns in relation to mortality

Several studies have reported increased mortality risk with early natural m enopause. More recently, mortality risk was reported to be reduced among wo men who gave birth at age greater than or equal to 40 years. The associatio n between reproductive history and mortality was explored among 826 women i n a prospective study involving 18,959 person-years of follow-up (from age 50 to 1990-1991) and 108 deaths, After adjustment for age and other covaria tes, the risk ratio among parous women was 1.53 (95% confidence interval: 0 .58, 4.07) for natural menopause at age less than or equal to 45 years comp ared with greater than or equal to 51 years. In contrast to a previous repo rt, however, the highest estimated mortality risk was seen among women who gave birth in their forties (adjusted risk ratio = 2.14, 95% confidence int erval: 1.05, 4.38) compared with having a last birth at ages 30-34 years.