Menarcheal pattern and knowledge of reproductive health in young adolescent girls of a village in India

Introduction: Adolescents’ health makes a platform for Reproductive and Child Health (RCH). Knowledge and practices of healthy life style during this period may bring vast changes in overall standards of health of a community, especially maternal and child health. Menarche in girls is the opening of reproductive phase of life which requires appropriate knowledge, care and healthy practices. Material and methods: As a practical training to the undergraduate female medical students, their clinical posting phase of Community Medicine was used to conduct the field study. This included interview, examination and health education to the girls of menarcheal age on menstruation and other aspects of reproductive health. Results: Out of 385 girls interviewed in the age group of 9-16 years, 207 had attained menarche with mean menarcheal age worked out as 12 years 7 months. Maximum girls attained menarche in the age group of 12-13 years. Average menstruation cycle and menstruation period were calculated as 27.8 and 5.5 days respectively. Health education imparted on adolescent and reproductive health to girls during this period made an impact of improving their level of knowledge from 20.4 to 69.3 percent, an improvement of about 49 percent. Conclusion: The study was found useful in working out the mean menarcheal age, average duration of menstrual cycle and menstrual period. For the undergraduate medical students, it was an early exposure to learn the methods of field study and impart health education to the rural adolescent girls. It also improved level of knowledge of the rural girls on adolescent health.