Menarche in girls of the Roma population in Tuzla Canton, Bosnia and Herzgovina

Abstract

Introduction:During the past hundred years, menarche has been noticed to occur much earlier. This secular trend is explained by the earlier reaching of critical body mass and the improvement of living standards. The time of menarche onset depends on the girl's body mass, genetic factors, social environment factors, standard of living, altitude, environment. The aim of the research was to investigate trends in the onset of menarche in girls of the Roma population with in the Tuzla Canton.

Subjects and methods: The research was conducted on girls of the Roma population, chronologically aged from 10 to 15 years, students of six elementary schools from grades V-IX, from the Tuzla Canton. The research was conducted using the questionnaire/survey method.

Results:In was determined in our research that the youngest girl from the Roma population had menarche at the age of 9.58, while the oldest was at the age of 17.2. In our region, the average age of menarche is 12 years. In our research, the largest number of respondents got menarche at the age of 10-11.9, 33 or 55.0% of them, then 12 or 20.0% of them at the age of 12-13.9, and only 3 or 5.0% of the respondents got menarche at that age 14 and more. As a greater number of girls had menarche at the same age as their mothers, the genetic conditioning of menarche is confirmed.

Conclusion: The most of respondents from the Roma population in Tuzla Canton had menarche between 10 and 11.9 years of age. Adolescent girls living in rural settlements reached menarche a little later (12-13.9 years) compared to the respondents living in urban settlements (10-11.9 years).