Season of birth and recalled age at menarche

1992/04/01 by Jesper L. Boldsen
Medicine · #Menstrual Health and Disorders

paper · doi:10.1017/s0021932000019702

crossref issued 1992/04/01 · crossref published 1992/04/01 · crossref published-print 1992/04/01 · openalex publication_date 1992/04/01 · crossref published-online 2008/07/31 · crossref created 2008/07/31 · crossref deposited 2019/05/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

All 8th-form schoolgirls from the municipality of Odense in Denmark were asked at what age they reached menarche, and 886 girls (97.6%) gave this information. There is no evidence for seasonality in the time of birth but for far more girls than expected menarche occurred during winter or summer and fewer than expected during spring and autumn. This pattern appears primarily in girls living in the suburbs and was not seen in those living in central Odense. The seasonality appears to be brought about by differences in mean age at menarche according to time of the year at birth.

Related

• Secular trends in age at menarche in Norwegians born from 1840 to 2008
• Birth month, school graduation, and the timing of births and marriages
• Longitudinal Growth Patterns in Boys and Girls Aged 9–14 Years by Birth Season
• What day is the peak of birth in France?
• Estimating menarcheal age distribution from partially recalled data