Abstract

Background: The menarche is known to assess the integrity of a woman’s circuitry from brain to ovary to the uterus and its timing is determined by multiple factors, one of which is attainment of a particular waist-to-hip (W/H) ratio, suggesting that leptin conveys information about the fat distribution to hypothalamus to initiate the process of menarche. Aims and Objectives: This study aims to assess the mean age of menarche in this region (AOM) and to find if there is any difference between the AOM of government and private school-going girls and to find the relationship between AOM and various anthropometric measurements.
Materials and Methods: A total of 250 randomly selected adolescent girls were asked to fill a pretested pre-structured questionnaire regarding anthropometric measurements, sociodemographic profile, and menstrual history.
Results: The mean AOM was found to be 12.94 ± 0.74 years and the difference between the AOM of government and private schools is highly significant (P < 0.001) and W/H ratio is the single best predictor of the AOM. Conclusion: As childhood obesity and mental stress are on a rise worldwide, both these puberty accelerators are producing a new generation of girls who are sexually mature at a very tender age and this pubertal maturity should be matched by social maturity.