Why are girls getting their periods at younger and younger ages?

Why are more and more girls getting their periods in 4th grade?

This should be the biggest worry for many mothers with daughters. Today we will find out what the reason is. Let's take a look~

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The arrival of menarche means that girls bid farewell to their childhood and begin to move towards sexual maturity.

Not everyone can remember when they had their first menstruation, but they can probably remember that they were in junior high school at the time, at least around 13 or 14 years old, or a little earlier, in the sixth grade of elementary school, around 12 years old. However, compared to now, many people have begun to find something wrong, how come girls nowadays seem to have their periods earlier? Many children seem to have started their periods in the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school.

Is it an illusion?

First of all, I can tell you for sure that this is not an illusion. In recent years, some studies and surveys on the menarche of women have begun to make new discoveries. Whether it is serious research in the academic community or white papers output by Internet big data, the conclusions are surprisingly consistent: "The age of menarche of contemporary women has begun to show a trend of getting younger."

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In 2018, a master's thesis from Shandong University conducted a study on the changing trends and influencing factors of the menarche age of Chinese adolescent girls based on data from the national open database CHNS (sample size: 3199). The results found that:

In 1973, the average age of menarche for women showed a long-term downward trend, from 14.25 years old to 12.40 years old, with an average decrease of about 0.51 years every decade.

Source: Study on the trend of menarche age change and influencing factors among Chinese adolescent girls

This phenomenon may be mainly related to nutritional intake.

"Studies have shown that BMI is the leading factor affecting the age of menarche in Chinese girls. The higher the BMI value, the younger the average age of menarche."

The specific principles may be:

The increase in body fat promotes the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which in turn leads to early menarche.

High levels of carbohydrate intake are the second most important factor affecting early menarche in women.

In addition, some studies have found that moderate exercise can reduce body fat, lead to a decrease in estrogen levels, and delay the age of menarche in junior high school students to within the normal range.

From any perspective, paying attention to balanced diet and reducing fat and weight are both positive in preventing premature menarche.

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In addition to nutritional intake, studies also show that the early age of menarche is affected by urban-rural differences: urban girls have a younger age of menarche than rural girls.

This coincides with the official survey data released by the Aunt Mart APP and CBNDate in 2017, and may be related to nutritional status and dietary structure.

Source: 2017 Chinese Women's Physiological Health White Paper

In addition to factors such as nutritional intake, exercise, and living environment, the age of menarche may also be related to parents' genetics and family environment.

For example:

The earlier the mother's menarche age, the more likely her daughter will have an early menarche age; the father's sex-linked gene Xq28 mutation may be related to the daughter's early menarche.

Girls whose parents have a bad relationship and are exposed to long-term family pressure have their first menstruation at a significantly earlier age than girls whose parents have a good relationship and a harmonious family.

In short, the early age of menarche may be related to a variety of factors and is already quite common.

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