When is the first menstruation for girls?

When girls reach a certain age, they will have their first menstruation, which we call menarche. For girls who have their first menstruation, this is their first menstruation in their lives, and they will experience many negative emotions, such as fear, shyness, or curiosity, etc. As parents, we need to help her understand menstruation and relieve these emotions, so we hope that parents can communicate with their children in advance to help them better understand their menarche.

The age of menarche in girls generally fluctuates between 10 and 16 years old, with most cases occurring between 13 and 14 years old. But some girls begin sexual development very early, and their first menstruation occurs at the age of 9 to 10. According to our extensive surveys in Harbin, this type of girls accounts for about 1%. When faced with such situations, most parents feel surprised, fearing that their children are not developing normally or have some disease; the children themselves are also prone to panic and do not understand the physiological phenomena occurring at such a young age. At this moment, the care and correct guidance of parents and teachers will help eliminate the girl's emotional tension.

This apparent early onset of menarche is due to individual differences in children's development and has inherent characteristics when observed as a whole. Generally, girls who start menstruation early will enter puberty earlier. While other people experience a sudden growth in height at the age of 11 to 12, these girls grow greatly in height at the age of 8 or 9 (7 to 8 cm per year) and weigh nearly 40 kg. Normal girls begin to develop breasts around the age of 11, but this type of girls begin to develop breasts at the age of 9 to 10.

Another important feature is that the bone age of girls who have their first menstruation at the age of 9 to 10 years old is significantly older than their calendar age. For example, some girls started menstruating at the age of 9.5, and their bone age was already 13.3 years old at that time. We conducted detailed physical examinations on more than 60 girls who had their first menstruation before the age of 11. The results showed that the bone age of their wrist bones was over 12 years old, and the average bone age was 2.66 years higher than the calendar age. This is because bone development and sex development are both regulated by endocrine hormones, and the two are closely related. Bone age can be determined by taking an X-ray of the wrist bones.

In addition, the psychological development of most girls with physiologically early menarche is also synchronized with this. Their self-control, ability to adapt to the external environment, and ability to regulate emotions are better than those of their peers.

The coordination and consistency of the physical, skeletal, psychological and other developmental aspects mentioned above is very helpful in distinguishing physiological and pathological phenomena. Pathological early menarche is only a manifestation of certain diseases or serious endocrine disorders, and it is always accompanied by other clinical symptoms or signs. As long as the development process is carefully observed and certain indicators are thoroughly tested, the cause of the disease can eventually be determined.

With the continuous improvement of people's material and cultural living standards, especially the significant improvement in nutritional status, the phenomenon of early growth and development of children has been reflected in many indicators. In recent years, the average age of menarche for urban women in my country has been 2 years earlier than 50 years ago. In 1980, the average age of menarche for girls in most cities across the country was around 13.5 years old. According to survey data from various regions since 1990, this age has been advanced to 12.8-13.0 years old, and this developmental advancement trend is still continuing.

Therefore, it is not surprising that a few girls experience menarche at the age of 9 or 10. They have great potential for future height growth and can grow another 8 to 10 cm after menarche. This has been confirmed by scholars' dynamic observations.

A large number of studies at home and abroad have shown that individual differences in development levels and growth rates are most obvious among adolescent teenagers. The phenomenon of girls maturing sexually faster than their calendar age is more common among students, and precocious female individuals are more common than male individuals.

Nowadays, there are so many out-of-season foods, genetically modified foods, and some foods with mixed additives, all of which may cause our children to mature early. Therefore, parents should pay attention to their children's diet. In addition, each child's growth rate and level are different. Some children now mature early, so parents need to be careful and patient. Come on.