Gosden R G, Treloar S A, Martin N G, Cherkas L F, Spector T D, Faddy M J, Silber S J
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Hum Reprod. 2007 Feb;22(2):610-5. doi: 10.1093/humrep/del382. Epub 2006 Oct 25.
Premature ovarian failure (POF) before 40 years of age from natural causes affects approximately 1% of adult women, with minor variations between ethnic groups. A recent case of ovarian transplantation between young monozygotic (MZ) twins in which one had undergone unexplained POF at 14 years has prompted a study of the prevalence of POF.
Menopausal ages of 832 Australian and UK female twin-pairs were extracted from volunteer national twin registry databases containing medical, reproductive and lifestyle data surveyed by mail questionnaire. Surgical menopause was an exclusion criterion.
The prevalence of POF in both MZ and dizygotic (DZ) twins was similar in both registries and 3- to 5-fold greater than the general population at age thresholds 40 and 45 years. No specific factors were found to account for the higher risk of early menopause. Some twins of both zygosities were highly discordant for menopausal age (>or=10 years). Nevertheless, there was significant intra-twin dependence, especially for MZ twins, and the average age difference at last menses was greater in DZ twin-pairs.
Both MZ and DZ twins are at higher risk of POF. Despite some striking differences within MZ twin-pairs, menopausal ages were more concordant than for DZ twin-pairs, confirming that the timing of menopause has a heritable component.
40岁之前因自然原因导致的卵巢早衰（POF）影响约1%的成年女性，不同种族之间略有差异。最近有一例年轻同卵（MZ）双胞胎之间的卵巢移植案例，其中一人在14岁时出现不明原因的POF，这促使了一项关于POF患病率的研究。
从包含通过邮寄问卷调查的医学、生殖和生活方式数据的澳大利亚和英国全国志愿者双胞胎登记数据库中提取832对澳大利亚和英国女性双胞胎的绝经年龄。手术绝经作为排除标准。
在两个登记处，MZ和异卵（DZ）双胞胎中POF的患病率相似，在40岁和45岁的年龄阈值时比一般人群高3至5倍。未发现导致早期绝经风险较高的具体因素。两种合子类型的一些双胞胎在绝经年龄上差异很大（≥10岁）。然而，双胞胎之间存在显著的相关性，尤其是MZ双胞胎，并且DZ双胞胎对末次月经的平均年龄差异更大。
MZ和DZ双胞胎患POF的风险都较高。尽管MZ双胞胎对之间存在一些显著差异，但绝经年龄比DZ双胞胎对更一致，证实绝经时间有遗传成分。
