Trend is especially pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian participants, and those who report lower socioeconomic status

Trend is especially pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian participants, and those who report lower socioeconomic status

Girls in the United States had their first periods earlier over the last five decades and it took longer to experience regular cycles, a new study has found.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, found the trend is especially pronounced among Black, Hispanic, Asian and mixed race participants, and among those who reported lower socioeconomic status.

“This is important because early menarche,” or a first period, “and irregular periods can signal physical and psychosocial problems later in life,” said Zifan Wang, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University’s TH Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

  • @scrionEnglish
    22•7 months ago

    They could just cite the linked article for this:

    Although the study was large, it relies on self-reported information – which is generally considered less reliable than sources such as medical or financial records. In some cases, it would have required participants to think back decades. Still, the study will likely provide direction for future research.

      • @LegEnglish
        16•7 months ago

        I think you’d remember how old you were when your dong first started gushing blood for the rest of your life.

      • @[email protected]English
        13•7 months ago

        Pretty fucking unlikely. Maybe if it’s the kind where the blood is brownish at first, they wouldn’t notice the first day, but once it gets thick and red and gushy by the beginning of the second day, it’s all the more alarming if you don’t know what to expect. Even if you learned about periods and aren’t worried you definitely remember that first one. I was 11 and it was summer so 11.4

          • DessertStorms
            10•7 months ago

            There is not a single afab person I know that doesn’t remember when they got their first period.

            I could tell you not only how old I was, but where I was, about what time of day it was when I first found out, and how long it lasted.

            This idea that women and girl’s memories and knowledge of our own bodies can’t be trusted is nothing but good old fashioned misogyny, and it’s this kind of bullshit assumption as a starting point that is one of a variety of reasons we get treated so much worse by medical professionals (and society in general, like when we get doubted and even blamed when we get sexually attacked or harassed).

            Maybe instead of trying to pick holes in our experience, which you clearly know nothing about, just shut the fuck up and listen? You don’t always have to chip in, your ignorant opinion really isn’t that valuable…

            • @LinnceEnglish
              3•7 months ago

              Same! I remember there was some white discharge a few days before which was completely new to me. I remember where I was, what time of the day, what color panties and who I told about it right after. I would trust this data.

      • @scrionEnglish
        8•7 months ago

        I’m not qualified to answer this question, I merely provide citations for people who are too lazy to read the articles and simply go by social media post titles. These citations are also not necessarily an expression of my personal opinion.

        General remarks: Memory recall is measureable / quantifiable to a certain degree: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797620954812

        Self-reports should only ever be used to augment better methods, but sometimes, it’s all we have.