Height and Age of First Menstration

I took a child development class in college and it has to do with weight. The magic number is supposedly 110 pounds.

I was told by my pediatrician that menstruation is tied to body fat. Usually, girls hit a percentage of body fat in order to begin menstruating. I was a very scrawny girl. I didn't start my period until I was almost 16. I was totally freaked out because I was the ONLY person I knew that hadn't started their period yet. My mom was of similar frame and build, and she didn't start until she was the same age. So while heredity has something to do with it, so does body fat. And neither of us are tall- average I would say.

I'm guessing from everyone's answers that height has nothing to do with it. Although, I started sort of late at 14 1/2 and I'm now 5'8". Don't know if it has anything to do with body fat either. I was a chunky kid (even though I was a competitive swimmer, I was NEVER the skinny - or even slender - girl!) I slimmed out after I got my period. My daughter will be 10 this summer. Better start the talk - YIKES!

From what our Pediatrician said, it depends on a child's BMI. (body mass index, as well).
And he said, that he seems to notice, that physically active/athlete type girls, get it later.
This is his observation... not some scientific study.
Also, also perhaps, it 'seems'..... 'robust' girls, may develop breast buds and maybe periods, earlier... as I have 'heard' that a girls' weight... also triggers 'when' a period starts.....
Don't know the scientific studies on that.

Girls, also seem to be getting their periods, earlier.
My friend who has 2 girls, noticed this when her girls, were 9.

I got mine at 12.
When I was that age, that seemed to be when the girls, got it.

5'6' started when I was 12

I was 11, I am 5 foot 3 inches

almost 14 and 6 ft.
I have a freind who was almost 15 and she is 6"1'

5'7' and 11 years old here, too.

I started the summer between 6th and 7th grade so I was near 12 years old. I am 5'9" I come from a family of lots of tall people. We have lots of 6 footers. Everyone in my family is just tall.

I am 5'4 and I got it at 11 and I was in 5th grade

LOL! I didn't hit 110 pounds until I was 21 years old and married!

I am 5'5" and I had my first period when I was 12.

I think it's more about weight. I started mine at 14 I was 5'6 and 100 lbs soaking wet I was always skinny. My two sisters were heavier then I ever was and they started at a younger age then I did I believe my little sister was in elem school.

I also think weight has something to do with it. In my family females tend to start quite young, I was the oldest starting when I was 13. Just recently my niece started at age 11. We could tell she was going to start as her waist starting thinning out and the hips and bum were rounding out. 9 seems really young though, thats only a year older than my dd!! Yikes, :-)

I was almost 11 and am 5'7". I think genetics have more to do with it than anything else.

I got my period at age 9. I'm 6'1"

At age 9 (3rd/4th grade) when I got my period I was 5'2"

I didn't weigh 110 lbs until the 7th grade (4 years later) I remember how MORTIFIED I was to be the only one in 'triple digits' in the 6th grade. During a 'weigh in' IN class, I was 104. Absolutely mortified. Of course, I was also 5'8" at that point. In the 7th & 8th grade I passed as early 20's more often than not, and was even 'escorted off campus' at one point. I went home very confused, and my mum drove me back absolutely furious.

MOST of the women in my family get/got their periods around age 16/17. A few (like me) strike out early. It tends (in my family) to be EITHER before age 10 or after age 16. We're all 5'10-6'2, and most of us are "full grown" (or durn close to it, like my 6 feet tall by 9th grade) by the end of middle school.

_________________

By 7th grade I was 5'9 with a C cup

By 9th I was 6 feet with a DD cup

The extra inch happened around age 18. No idea where it came from. I'd been 6 foot flat for over 4 years at that point.

For what it's worth....My Pediatrican said that my daughter would stop growing about 2 years after she got her period. She started ON her 12th birthday. I start just after I turned 11. My daughter is now 15 and about an inch shorter than me (I'm 5' 2.5") and seems to have stopped growing. (Though I know an 18 year-old girl who is still growing.) She is extremely skinny, so I don't think weight has much to do with age. And you definitely don't have to hit 110 pounds or mine wouldn't have started until I was 22. I started at a younger age than my sister and am 2 inches taller than her.

I'm 5'5" and I started the day after my 11th birthday.
I always thought girls were more likely to start when they hit a certain percentage/body fat ratio (which isn't necessarily height related).
I've known a few girls who didn't start till they were 14 and they were tall skinny beanpoles.

I'm 5'4" and I had my first period at 14 (3 months shy of my 15th birthday), my mom is 5'5" and she got hers at 13, and my sister got hers at 12 and she is 5'7". I have heard that very active girls sometimes get it later. I was a competitive swimmer for many years, and was a bean pole so maybe that had something to do with it, I'm not sure.

I was 12, and at that point I was about 5'9" and weighed around 110 lbs, I think. (I am now 6' tall.)

I'm a little terrified that so many people are saying 9 years old. Really?! That seems very young - I guess I'd better talk to my 8 year old about this. I figured I had a few more years... =-/

I was about 5'1", 95lbs, and I was 16. Doesn't some of it have to do with how much activity you do? I know in boot camp I stopped having a period b/c we were always doing physical activity. In high school, I did a lot of physical activity and got it at 16. Did you ask how he/she came to their prediction? lol, I'd be curious.

I've heard the stuff in meats to keep them from spoiling actually make kids develop earlier than in the past. Genetics are tricky because there a billions of ways the genetics can be paired up from both sides of the family. My daughter is tall for 2 1/2 and I'm 5'2" and her dad is 5'11" lol.

I got mine at 12 and am 5'9.

I was 9 when I first started and I'm 5'7" now.

I got mine when I was about 10.5. I dont think I grew very much after that. I am 5'4. My daughter started whn she was 10.5 too and has only grown 1in if that much since then (she'll be 16 in August). Of course she has Hashimotos that went undiagnosed for a bit too so maybe that could be part of it.

I read somewhere that TYPICALLY females don't grow much after they get their period.

Well, any time you look at a sample of only three people, it's not likely going to prove or disprove an assumption like this :-)

My mom and I got ours at 13 and we are (were) 5'4". My stepdaughter didn't get hers until she was 15 and she is now 5'11". So that would be in line with the theory.

Maybe there is a correlation between first period and growth slowdown. By that I mean, maybe most of us only get our periods once we've done most of our growing. But I'm not an expert on puberty by any means!

My niece was 10 and she's 5ft 2ish. I was almost 13 and I'm 5ft1. But I think a lot of it is also genetics because my parents are short. I think my SD was 13.5 and she's very tall...again, tall parents.

gosh! I don't know if that is true or not... hmmm.

I am 5'5" today and I was 11 when I had my first period. My mom was 12 (I think) and she is 5'10". My grandmother on my dad's side is 5'9" and she was 11 or 12...

Those are the only people I know when they started hmm...

I was a bean-pole as a child and I am the "shorty" of the family. Everyone predicted I would grow up to be a tall, skinny, supermodel type person... nope- genetics FAIL! Haha! I think you are likely to have your period about the same age as your mother or grandmothers did... and you will probably be about the same height as your parents. The only thing that I have heard affects the age of menstruation is strenuous hardcore athletics or being very underweight or very overweight... I also heard *somewhere* that in general girls are starting puberty younger than they did in the past... hmm...

Who knows? As long as she is healthy - she'll be fine!

-M.