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Objective: To investigate the cross-sectional associations of reproductive history and use of exogenous hormones with fast walking speed (WS) in women., Study Design: Between 2012 and 2020, 33,892 French women aged 45 years or more, recruited at health centers, underwent physical function tests and self-reported information on reproductive history and use of exogenous hormones. Linear mixed models with the center as random intercept were used to estimate the association of exposures with WS., Main Outcome Measures: Fast WS., Results: Mean WS was 172.2 cm/s. WS increased with age at menarche (β +1y  = 0.23, 95 % confidence interval = 0.05 to 0.40), age at first birth (β +1y  = 0.20, 95 % CI = 0.13 to 0.27) and duration of breastfeeding (β for ≥10 vs ≤5months  = 1.38; 95 % CI = 0.39 to 2.36). In addition, parity was quadratically associated with WS, with women with 3 children having the highest WS (p for U-shaped relationship < 0.01). Menopausal status had no impact on WS but age at menopause was positively associated with WS (β +5y  = 0.52, 95 % CI = 0.17 to 0.87) and partly explained the deleterious impact of artificial menopause on WS. WS increased with reproductive lifetime duration (β +5y  = 0.49, 95 % CI = 0.16 to 0.83) and decreased with time since onset of menopause (β +5y  = -0.65, 95 % CI = -0.99 to -0.31). By contrast, there was no association of WS with oral contraception and postmenopausal hormone therapy., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that reproductive life characteristics may be associated with WS and timing of exposure could play a role., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background/objectives: The associations of reproductive history and motor function are controversial., Design: Prospective cohort study with 10 years of follow-up., Setting: Three French cities between 1999 and 2011., Participants: A total of 3043 community-dwelling women from the Three-City Dijon study population., Measurements: We examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal association of age at menopause, artificial menopause, and parity with walking speed (WS) using linear regression and linear mixed models, respectively. Cox proportional models were used to examine the association of characteristics of reproductive life with disability., Results: Mean baseline WS was 143.8 cm/s. Artificial menopause was associated with slower WS at baseline (β = -3.29; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -5.83 to -0.74; P = .01). Reproductive life characteristics had no effect on change in WS. Increasing age at menopause was associated with reduced disability risk (hazard ratio [HR] for 5-year increase = 0.92; 95% CI = 0.87-0.99; P = .02), while parity increased disability risk (HR for ≥3 vs 0 children = 1.53; 95% CI = 1.22-1.93; P < .01)., Conclusion: These findings show that early age at menopause and higher parity have a deleterious effect on motor function that persists in older people. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:585-594, 2020., (© 2019 The American Geriatrics Society.)

Background: Lung cancer aetiology and clinical aspects have been mainly studied in men, although specific risk factors probably exist in women. Here we present the rationale, design and organization of the WELCA study (Women Epidemiology Lung CAncer) that has been launched to investigate lung cancer in women, focusing particularly on hormonal and occupational factors., Methods/design: WELCA is a population based case-control study and planned to recruit 1000 cases and 1000 controls in three years, based on study power calculation. Eligible cases are female patients newly diagnosed with lung cancer, living in Paris and the Ile de France area and aged up to 75 years. Almost all Parisian pneumology and oncology clinical departments are involved. The control group is a random sample of the population living in the same area, frequency-matched on age and additionally stratified on the distribution of socio-professional categories of women residing there. After acquisition of written consent, research nurses administer standardized computer assisted questionnaires to all the subjects in face-to-face interviews and acquire anthropometric measures. Besides usual socio-demographic characteristics, information is gathered about menstrual and reproductive factors, hormonal treatments, lifestyle and leisure characteristics, occupational history, personal and familial medical history. Biological samples are also collected, in order to establish a biobank for molecular epidemiology studies. Molecular characteristics of the tumours will be obtained and patients will be followed up for five years., Discussion: The WELCA study aims to answer key questions in lung cancer aetiology and clinical characteristics specifically in women. The role of hormonal impregnation is investigated, and the interactions with cigarette smoking or body mass index (BMI) will be analyzed in detail. The occupational history of the subjects is carefully reconstructed, focusing in particular on the service sector. The creation of a biobank for collection of serum, plasma, DNA and tumour tissue will allow the genetic and biochemical characterization of both the subjets and the tumours. The follow-up of the patients will help in disentangling the role of hormonal factors and tumour molecular characteristics in survival.

Objective: This study aims to investigate venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk in relation to age at menopause, age at menarche, parity, bilateral oophorectomy, and time since menopause, as well as any interaction with randomized hormone therapy (HT) assignment, among postmenopausal women., Methods: Using pooled data from the Women's Health Initiative HT clinical trials including 27,035 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years who had no history of VTE, we assessed the risk of VTE in relation to age at menopause, age at menarche, parity, bilateral oophorectomy, and time since menopause by Cox proportional hazards models. Linear trends, quadratic relationships, and interactions of reproductive life characteristics with HT on VTE risk were systematically tested., Results: During follow-up, 426 women reported a first VTE, including 294 non-procedure-related events. No apparent interaction of reproductive life characteristics with HT assignment on VTE risk was detected, and there was not a significant association between VTE and age at menarche, age at menopause, parity, oophorectomy, or time since menopause. However, analyses restricted to non-procedure-related VTE showed a U-shaped relationship between age at menopause and thrombotic risk that persisted after multivariable analysis (P < 0.01). Compared with women aged 40 to 49 years at menopause, those who had early menopause (age <40 y) or late menopause (age >55 y) had a significantly increased VTE risk (hazard ratio [95% CI]: 1.8 [1.2-2.7] and 1.5 [1.0-2.4], respectively)., Conclusions: Reproductive life characteristics have little association with VTE and do not seem to influence the effect of HT on thrombotic risk among postmenopausal women. Nevertheless, early and late onset of menopause might be newly identified risk factors for non-procedure-related VTE.