Age of menarche, or the timing of first menses in girls, is a physiological trait that shows substantial genetic heritability. Earlier age of menarche is associated with increased childhood adiposity and with adult risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. In 827 young Filipino women from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS), we observed nominal association with age of menarche (β = −0.118 years, 95% confidence interval = (−0.216, −0.020), P = 0.019) for the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7759938 from the menarche locus LIN28B with an effect direction consistent with the previous report. We also tested whether childhood adiposity, as measured by body mass index (BMI) at age 8, mediated the relationship between rs7759938 and age of menarche. We observed suggestive evidence that the effect of the SNP on age of menarche was independent of childhood adiposity. These data confirm the strongest gene reported in Europeans (LIN28B) as a contributor to age of menarche in an Asian population
