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Age at menarche declined in recent years, but delay persists for girls with type 1 diabetes
Schweiger B. Diabetes Care. 2010;33:2521-2523.
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Despite a decline in age at menarche during the past 4 decades, a delay in menarche persists for girls with type 1 diabetes, researchers found.
“More recently diagnosed girls with type 1 diabetes report a younger age at menarche than girls who were diagnosed in prior decades. Also, the delay between individuals diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before menarche and individuals diagnosed after menarche is trending to be less in adolescent girls than in adult women with type 1 diabetes. However, a delay in menarche of [more than] 8 months remains, despite improved diabetes management,” Bahareh Schweiger, DO, and colleagues wrote.
The cross-sectional study compared age at menarche in adolescents aged 11 to 24 years (n=228) with adults aged 19 to 55 years (n=290) who were enrolled in the Coronary Artery Calcification in Type 1 Diabetes study.
According to the results, adolescents reported a mean age at menarche of 12.7 years vs. 13.2 years for adults (P<.001). Both adolescents and adults who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before reaching menarche were older (12.8 years and 13.7 years) when compared with individuals who were diagnosed with diabetes after menarche (12.1 years and 12.6 years; P<.001 for both).
The researchers then examined age at menarche by decade of type 1 diabetes diagnosis: 1970-1979; 1980-1989; 1990-1999; and 2000-2009. They found that age at menarche declined significantly during the 4 decades (P=.0002). Also significant across all decades was the delay in menarche among girls diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before menarche when compared with girls diagnosed after menarche (P<.0001). The delay in menarche did not change significantly during the 4 decades (P=.41).
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