Research presented Saturday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting ENDO 2026 in Chicago, Illinois, shows that problems in adulthood, such as smoking disorders and some diseases related to the digestive system, heart, bladder, joints and brain, are all influenced by some influence that occurred in childhood.
This research significantly expands the number of adult health conditions associated with childhood influences. Late timing of menarche can serve as an indicator of early life influences that can lead to health problems in adulthood. Although much attention has been focused on early menarche and its causes, our study highlights that late onset of menarche also alerts us and can be a sign of an underlying problem. The exact identity of these childhood effects that influence adult health is still unknown. But we know that these early-life influences appear to go beyond mere socio-economic influences. ”
Dr. Ambreen Sonawalla, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
The authors analyzed data from 165,832 women enrolled in a large database of British adults called the UK Biobank. The database includes a wide range of data, including medical diagnoses, women’s self-reported timing of menarche (first menstrual period), and genetic data.
The age at which menarche occurs during adolescence may be delayed due to childhood health and environmental factors. The group’s previous research, which investigated the relationship between later age at menarche and higher risk of coronary artery disease in women, showed that later timing of menarche can be used as an indicator of influences that occurred in childhood that not only delay menarche but also increase the risk of coronary artery disease in adulthood.
Researchers found that delayed menarche simply reflects something else that happened in childhood that is the real cause of increased risk of coronary artery disease. They used the timing of menarche as an indicator/surrogate for childhood influences in this study to investigate whether this also applies to other adult health conditions and study its relationship with the 1295 medical diagnoses available in the UK Biobank.
Given that the timing of menarche is also influenced by genetics, we thought that given the known influence of genetics on the timing of menarche, we could focus more on other factors that influence menarche. They simultaneously studied the relationship between all 1295 diagnoses and age at menarche using a method called phenomwide association studies.
They found that 85 medical examinations of adults showed evidence of childhood influences. These include smoking disorders and conditions related to the digestive system, heart, bladder, joints, and brain, among others.
“We need to change our perspective. We need to move from thinking that these health conditions emerge in adulthood to recognizing that they are a culmination of influences that begin in childhood. It is now up to us to figure out what these childhood influences are, and further research and funding towards understanding them will allow us to focus on specific aspects of childhood health to improve lifelong health outcomes,” said Sonawalla.
