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Women who produce the fewest eggs are more likely to enter menopause early than women who produce more eggs, according to researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.
Researchers developed a study to see whether women with a low number of retrieved eggs at their first in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempt have an increased risk of early menopause.
The participants in the study were women who were participating in a nationwide Dutch study of ovarian stimulation for IVF and subsequent gynecologic diseases. Each woman who had experienced natural menopause at or before age 46 was individually matched to five control participants who had not yet entered menopause at the age the patient became postmenopausal.
Women with a poor response (zero to three eggs retrieved) were almost 12 times more likely to go through menopause early as compared with women who had a normal response (over three eggs retrieved), according to the study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
"These results suggest that women with a low number of retrieved oocytes (eggs) at the first IVF treatment are more likely to become postmenopausal at an early age than women with a higher number of retrieved oocytes," concluded the researchers.
Researchers believe their findings support the concept of "reproductive aging," where women of the same reproductive age lose ovarian function at different rates.
Source: Medical Week staff, week of June 23, 2002
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