Age at menarche and menstrual pattern in secondary schoolgirls in Sagamu

Background: Menarche is the first menstruation in the life of a woman. Menstrual pattern involves the length of bleeding, the length of the cycle and other associated events such as pain (dysmenorrhoea). Dysmenorrhoea has been identified as a reason for school absenteeism in girls. Objective: To determine the mean age at menarche and pattern of menstruation in the sub-urban district of Southwestern Nigeria and to demonstrate the influence of pre-menarcheal education on the attitude of the respondents. Method: Students in senior secondary classes were randomly selected from seven Secondary Schools in the town. The tool was a self administered simple questionnaire and analysis was done using SPSS 11.0 statistical package. Result: The mean age at menarche was 13.8 (1.3) and the range were 10 to 18 years. The mean length of the cycle was 26.9 (3.7) and the range was from 14 days to 32 days. The duration of flow ranged from 1 day to 13 days with a mean of 4.6 ( 1.2) days. Fifty three point four percent of the respondents had varying severity of dysmenorrhoea. There is a better perception of dysmenorrhoea in girls who had pre-menarcheal education (p=0.000). Conclusion: Mean menarcheal age of 13.8 (1.3) days compared favourably with findings in recent studies and also agree with declining trends over the past decades. Pre-menarcheal education will improve perception of dysmenorrhoea and thus reduce school absenteeism resulting from it.