Sport Mont (Oct 2016)

Relation of Age at Menarche to Physical Activity

  • Egreta Peja,
  • Ela Tase

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 3
pp. 7 – 10

Abstract

Read online

The aim of this study is to determine whether regular physical activity during early puberty is influential in preventing early menarche. This cross sectional study was carried out on 102 post-menarcheal girls aged 11–20 (14.79±0.33). 51 of them were already engaged in competitive sport activities prior to the onset of menstruation (group 1), while the others got engaged in such activities after the onset of menstruation (group 2). All participants provided the year and the month of their first menstrual period. First, we estimated the equality of dispersion between the two groups, by conducting Two Samples for Variances F-test. Second, because no homogeneity of variances between groups was found, they were compared by using Two Samples Assuming Unequal Variances t-test. The difference between groups is statistically significant, as the t statistics (=2.883) is greater than both critical t statistics (one-tail=1.664 two-tail=1.990) and the p value less than 0.05 in both cases (one-tail=0.002 two-tail=0.005). None of the girls in the first group starts to menstruate before 11 years of age and 90% of them are menstruating by age 14, with a median age of 12.95±0.35 years. Age of menarche is lower in the second group with a median age of 12.25±0.31 years, thus approximately 8 months lower than median age for the first group. 11.76% of the girls in the second group start to menstruate before 11 years of age and 90% of them are menstruating by age 13. It is rather, the decline in early matures among those engaged in regular physical activity prior to the onset of menses, that makes the statistically significant correlation between physical activity and age at menarche practically meaningful. Relatively early matures (<11 years) have been found to be slightly shorter but up to 5.5 kg heavier in adulthood than are late matures. In addition, a relatively young age at menarche has been associated with an increased risk for breast cancer and spontaneous abortion.

Keywords