Abstract

Introduction:  Background: The age of menarche is an important milestone in a life of a  woman. It is a sign of maturity of a girl to undergo sexual life. Some studies  have shown that there is significant decline in the mean age of menarche in  developed countries. Menarche is primarily important because of its timing  within puberty and its sensitivity to environmental changes. Mean age of  Menarche is an indicator of population health, well-being, and socio-economic  status, and declines under improved environmental conditions. Objective:To study the age at menarche in the Mthatha area of South Africa. Method: This is a descriptive study from the records of Sinawe center between  1st January and 31st December 2008. The Sinawe Center is the only center  who deals with all the cases of sexual assaults in the area. The retrospective  method is applied to recall their age at menarche at the time of examination  of victim of sexual assault from all the rape survivals who has presented to  Sinawe Center. Result: There were 636 subjects of rape recorded in Sinawe Center. Of this,  the age of menarche was found recorded in 464 cases. The youngest age group  (11-15 years) were 86 (18.5%) of subjects in this study. Of this, among 8 (1.7%)  were having age at menarche under 12 years of age, 50 (10.7%) were between  12 and 13 years, 28(6%) were 14 and 15 years of age group. The mean age  of menarche is 13.94 years. The maximum age at menarche was 15.64 years  amongst 46 to 50 years old women, and the minimum was 12.56 years amongst  11- and 15-years old girls (p=<0.05, 2 =216). There were 32 (6.9%) women who  were above the age group of 50 years. Among them, the age at menarche was  ranged from 14.67 to 14.85.  Conclusion: There is a decreasing trend in the age of menarche in the Transkei  region of South Africa. It is a matter of concern.

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