Menstrual cycle at early age may up diabetes risk in girls
First menstrual cycle -10 or younger - was also associated with a more than doubling in stroke risk among women below age of 65 with diabetes: Study
image for illustrative purpose
Diabetes and its complications are on the rise among young and middle-aged adults, while the age at which women start having periods is falling worldwide, said the researchers
New York: Girls who start their menstrual cycles early at a young age -- before the age of 13 -- could be at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and stroke in midlife, finds a research.
Starting periods before the average age of 13 was associated with a heightened risk of Type 2 diabetes. This ranged from 32 per cent greater (10 or younger) through 14 per cent greater (age 11) to 29 per cent greater (age 12).
Very early age at first menstrual cycle -- 10 or younger -- was also associated with a more than doubling in stroke risk among women below the age of 65 with diabetes, after similar adjustments for influential factors.
This risk fell in tandem with increasing age: 81 per cent among those with their first menstrual bleed at the age of 11, to 32 per cent at the age of 12, and to 15 per cent at the age of 14.
This is an observational study, and as such, can't establish causal factors.
But,"earlier age at [first menstrual cycle] may be one of early life indicators of the cardiometabolic disease trajectory in women", said corresponding author Sylvia H Ley from Tulane University in the US.
"One potential pathway explanation may be that [such] women are exposed to oestrogen for longer periods of time, and early [menstruation] has been associated with higher oestrogen levels," Ley added.
Diabetes and its complications are on the rise among young and middle-aged adults, while the age at which women start having periods is falling worldwide, said the researchers.
