Young Menstrual Cycle Age Linked To Heart Disease

The time of a girl's first menstrual period may signal certain things about her health, according to recent findings published in the journal Circulation. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that girls who had their first period at 10 years or younger were more likely to deal with heart issues.

Statistics show that menstruation typically begins around the age of 13 for most young women. For the study, researchers spent over 10 years analyzing data from 1.3 million women between the ages of 50 and 64 to determine how the first menstrual period could affect health.

Their findings also revealed that girls who had their periods earlier were about 16 percent more likely to be hospitalized or die from stroke.

"The size of our study, the wide range of ages considered, and the vascular diseases being examined made it unique and informative," said lead study author Dr. Dexter Canoy, and cardiovascular epidemiologist at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, in a news release. "Childhood obesity, widespread in many industrialized countries, is linked particularly to early age at which the first menstrual cycle occurs. Public health strategies to tackle childhood obesity may possibly prevent the lowering of the average age of first menstrual cycle, which may in turn reduce their risk of developing heart disease over the long term."

Researchers believe that over time, further examining menstruation cycles could potentially offer new therapeutic avenues for women. Furthermore, as childhood obesity is oftentimes associated with earlier menstruation, it's also important to address the epidemic at hand. Statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that in the past 30 years alone, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents.

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