Abstract

Background: Hormonal imbalance, obesity, altered food habits, chemicals in cosmetics, and sedentary life have been the main causes of early onset of menarche. There has been a secular trend in the age of menarche of females at the rate of decrease of 1 month per decade since 1995.

Aims and Objectives: The objective of the study is to find out the trend of age of the onset of menarche in females of rural and urban areas in the past 5 years, from 2014 to 2018.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 378 females (196 rural and 182 urban) of the age group of 7–15 years in the rural and urban population of Kanchipuram district. After obtaining written consent, a questionnaire was administered to know their current age and age of menarche and noted.

Results: Majority of the females had the age of menarche between 12 and 13 years in the rural and urban population, but the number of females who attained menarche at 13 years was comparatively more in the rural population (n = 96) when compared with the urban (n = 37), though there was no statistical difference between the both. Furthermore, we observed that the early age of onset starts in early 2015 in the urban population, compared with the trend establishing in the rural population in the recent 2017 and 2018.

Conclusion: There is a trend of early age of menarche among the females of the urban population when compared with the rural population.

Key words: 2014–2018; Age of Menarche; Rural; Urban