A prospective study of menopause in women with Down's syndrome

The present study prospectively examined the age at menopause of 92 women w ith Down's syndrome (DS) and the influence of hypothyroidism on the age of menopause. Three methods were used to determine the distribution and median age at onset of menopause: (I) Kaplan-Meier life tables; (2) Cox proportio nal hazards modelling; and (3) maximum likelihood logistic regression. All three methods provided distributions and similar estimates of the median ag e at menopause, which was approximate to 46 years. The presence of hypothyr oidism did not influence age at menopause. The earlier-than-expected age at onset of menopause suggests that women with DS are at an increased risk fo r postmenopausal health disorders.