The discovery is likely to help researchers unravel the basic biological cause of the condition and in turn focus efforts on treatments to prevent it in all groups of women.
The link between early menopause and twins came to light after researchers became interested in the case of Stephanie Yarber, a twin from St Louis who went through menopause, and so became infertile, at the age of 14. Her identical twin sister, Melanie, had given birth to three children without difficulty. This year, Stephanie gave birth to a girl after a transplant of ovarian tissue from her sister.
The case was initially believed to be an exception, but publicity surrounding the sisters led to the researchers receiving a flurry of inquiries from twins of whom one had gone through early menopause. The extra cases prompted the researchers to investigate the prevalence of early menopause in twins by trawling medical databases holding detailed information on twins in Britain and Australia.
"We found there was a high incidence of premature ovarian failure amongst twins, about a three to fourfold increase in risk above the normal rate," said Roger Gosden, professor of reproductive medicine at Cornell University, New York, who joined teams in Brisbane and St Thomas's hospital in London to do the study.
About 1% of women have gone through menopause by the age of 40, but among twins the figure was between 3% and 5%. By 45, the study showed, more than 15% of twins had experienced menopause, compared with only 4.5% of the general female population. The average age of menopause among all women is about 51.
The study will affect the family planning decisions of more than 8,000 female twins born in Britain each year. "It's just one of the factors that must be added to the list of those that cause early menopause," said Prof Gosden.
The reason for the marked difference in age of menopause among twins is uncertain but the researchers believe that in the early stages of foetal development certain genes are switched on or off by mistake, leading to one or both twins producing too few eggs.
Healthy women typically have about 1m eggs, but those who go through early menopause because of premature ovarian failure have only a tenth that number. Studies of twins where one has has experienced early menopause should reveal more about the causes of the condition, Prof Gosden believes.