Variability in hormone concentrations and self-reported menstrual histories in young adolescents: Menarche as an integral part of a developmental process

Menarche has been considered a marker for examining interindividual differe nces in biobehavioral development and for separating pubertal development i nto 2 stages. The purpose of this study was (1) to compare hormone concentr ations in pre- and postmenarcheal girls to determine whether they fit a con tinuous or dichotomous model of pubertal development surrounding menarche; and (2) to address methodological issues of variability in self-reports of menstrual histories and reliability in reporting age at menarche. Girls (N = 52) ages 9 to 14 years were enrolled in a longitudinal study. Blood was d rawn for hormone concentrations. Menstrual-cycle information was collected by questionnaire and oral report. Discrepancies in reporting of age at mena rche ranged from 0 to 18 months and variability was noted in length of cycl e. There was great overlap in hormones between pre- and postmenarcheal cate gories. Future studies might consider menarche as the culmination of underl ying developmental processes rather than as a discrete event Limitations of each measure of puberty should be considered by investigators conducting b iobehavioral studies of adolescents.