Shared genetic factors for age at natural menopause in Iranian and European women.

Study Question: Do differences in heritable genetic factors explain some of the difference in age at natural menopause (ANM) among populations?

Summary Answer: One single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-ANM association (rs16991615) detected in European women was replicated in Iranian women.

What Is Known Already: Genetics plays an important role in ANM, and well-powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of ANM performed in European women have discovered many statistically significant SNP-ANM associations. Average ANM varies by ethnicity, and population-specific differences in ANM-associated alleles may in part explain these differences.