Age At Menarche Of School Girls In Urban Benin City

Abstract

Age at menarche is a well recognized risk factor for breast cancer. This study is to determine what the age at menarche is for girls in urban Benin City in this first decade of the new millennium. A structured questionnaire to obtain the date of birth, date of menarche, height in centimeters, weight in kilograms, level of education and occupation of both parents were self administered to respondents in a secondary grammar school in urban Benin City. Data were analyzed using standard deviation and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). There were a total of 422 respondents of
which 357 had attained menarche. Age range at menarche was 9 – 17 years with a mean of 13.16 ±STD 1.22 with a 95% Confidence interval of 13.03 – 13.28 years. Girls from upper social class attained menarche 12 months earlier than those of social class 5. The current age at menarche for the urban Benin City school girls is 13.16 years. With a confidence interval of 13.03 – 13.28 years, it can be regarded that those who saw their period for the first at ages 9, 10 and11 years have attained early menarche and thus have one risk factor for breast cancer.

Key Words: Age, Menarche, Urban Benin City.