Undersøgelsen målte alderen for første menstruation hos franske skolepiger og fandt en median på 12,8 år. Resultaterne stemmer overens med en global tendens mod tidligere menstruation, nu stabiliseret omkring 13 år. Forskningen foreslår 9 år som grænse for tidlig menstruation, hvilket kan påvirke medicinsk vurdering af pubertetens start.
Titel på undersøgelse:
Age at Menarche: Results from the French Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study
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Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
In a 2006 cross-sectional survey of French schoolgirls, part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, researchers examined the age at onset of menarche using data from a nationally representative sample of 2,323 girls aged 13 and 15. Through an anonymous, self-reported questionnaire, the median age at menarche was calculated at 12.8 years (interquartile range: 12.0-13.6) via Kaplan-Meier estimation, while the mean age among 1,059 15-year-olds who had reached menarche was also 12.8 years (standard deviation: 1.2). These findings align with a broader trend in developed nations, where menarcheal age has stabilized around 13.0 ± 0.5 years after decades of decline. The study suggests that, in France, an age threshold of 9 years better defines early menarche, potentially refining medical approaches to early puberty management and highlighting the stabilizing variability of this developmental milestone.