Women who experience adverse events as children, such as abuse or neglect, may be more likely to face problems with their fertility, a new study suggests.

US researchers looked at almost 780 women aged between 18 and 45 years, almost 200 of whom were pregnant. They assessed the women for problems with fertility, irregularities with menstruation and adverse childhood experiences.

The theory is that negative experiences in childhood can affect the menstrual cycle, which can consequently affect fertility.

The study found that those who experienced negative events when they were children, such as ‘abuse, neglect, household dysfunction or parental substance abuse', were more likely than their peers to have faced problems with their fertility.

They also took a longer time to get pregnant and were more likely to have an abnormal absence of menstruation (amenorrhoea) for three months or more.

The researchers found that the more adverse events women experienced as children, the more likely they were to experience amenorrhoea and the higher their risk of experiencing fertility problems.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study to present evidence of a link between childhood stressors, menstrual cycle disruption and fertility difficulties," the researchers said.

They suggested that ‘early life stressors may predispose an individual to adaptively suppress fertility when situations are less than optimal, leading to periods of fertility difficulties even following previous births'.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology.