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Keywords: Delayed
menarche, Pre-teen motherhood, Negative impact on mother and child
Pre-teen and teen pregnancies are immense
problematic for the individuals, societies, countries, both health wise and
financially. Children born to preteen and teen mothers are not very healthy and
have a short life span. Pre-teen and teen mother’s reproductive health is
ruined, during labor many of them die or are, prematurely aborted, or babies
are taken out surgically. There are cases of stillborn. Majority of them are
malnourished. The cascade of reproductive endocrine glands start working after
the onset of menarche, hormone-activated target tissues and the organs which
are independent of steroid hormone action and are required in up-keeping of
development of embryo, are not ready to contribute fully towards tender age
during pre-teen pregnancy. Thus early reproductive maturation may not prepare
an ideal environment for the pregnancy and subsequent nurturing of the baby.
Menarche is
the event that signals for onset of female reproductive cycle signifying the
releasing of the oocyte, and continue to do so until menopause. Even about half
a century back menarcheal age was 15/16 years but now it has come down to even
9 years. Earlier in many societies child marriages were in vogue but because of
late menarche the couple was not able to produce a child. Though it may be
exception, a 5 year old Peruvian girl produced a child; examples of 6 to 10
years old girls became pregnant are many. This is all happening due to lowering
of the menarcheal age.
Recently,
we have enquired (1182 female subjects, age ranging from 9-60 years and above)
in Chennai, (Metropolitan city in southern part of India) on age at which
menarcheal event took place and found that in early 50’s girls never had
menarche before 14 years. However in late 90s, it has come down to 11 years
(11.45%) and majority will have (55.65%) at the age between 11 and 13 years,
and beyond comprises only 32.9.1%.
Many
factors influence menarcheal age. Since menarche is directly linked to
sexual maturity which in turn is influenced by a wide variety of factors
such as, geographical connotations, socioeconomic status, diet, exercise,
environment, religion, genetic and hereditary factors, ethnicity, psychological
stress, migration and chronic illnesses. In addition to these factors we
believe that circadian regulatory mechanism in the
pineal-hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis is also operative and has a pivotal
role in the lowering of the menarcheal age [1].
The ideal
menarcheal age will pave the way for the best output by the cooperation and
contribution of associated reproductive glands with their secretions during
gestation. However, some of the factors responsible for lowering the menarcheal
age cannot be controlled and the only remedial measure is not to get pregnant
until proper maturity.
1. Pushkala
K, Gupta PD, Geetha R (2018) Differential drift in menarcheal age in blind and
sighted girls. Gynecol Perinatol 2: 333-339.
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