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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on February 22, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwj099
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received July 26, 2005
Accepted November 29, 2005

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Pesticide Exposure and Timing of Menopause

Sherry L. Farr 1 *, Jianwen Cai 2, David A. Savitz 3, Dale P. Sandler 4, Jane A. Hoppin 4, and Glinda S. Cooper 4

1 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC
2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
3 Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
4 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sherry L. Farr, E-mail: sherry{at}alumni.unc.edu


  Abstract

Age at menopause has implications for fertility and risk of hormonally related chronic diseases. Some pesticides disrupt reproductive hormones or are toxic to the ovary, but little is known about the association between pesticide exposure and timing of menopause. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to examine the association between use of pesticides and age at menopause among 8,038 women living and working on farms in Iowa and North Carolina. Premenopausal women aged 35-55 years were followed from enrollment (1993-1997) to the date of their last menstrual period, or their follow-up interview (1999-2003) if still premenopausal. Women who experienced surgical menopause were censored at the date of surgery. Approximately 62% of the women reported ever mixing or applying pesticides; women who had never used pesticides were the comparison group for all analyses. After control for age, smoking status, and past use of oral contraceptives, the median time to menopause increased by approximately 3 months for women who used pesticides (hazard ratio = 0.87, 95% confidence interval: 0.78, 0.97) and by approximately 5 months for women who used hormonally active pesticides (hazard ratio = 0.77, 95% confidence interval: 0.65, 0.92). Pesticide use may be associated with a later age at menopause.

Keywords: agriculture; endocrine disruptors; fertility; hormone antagonists; hormones; menopause; ovary; pesticides.
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