what age do girls start menstruating?

I have heard that they start at 9 and 14. But when do they start?

 

wow.

 

depends on their body. Everybody is different .

 

i started at 11 where my sister started at 13 and my mom started at 17

 

anywhere between 9 and 16 on average. i think i was 13 or so, i was definitely in elementary at the time

 

11 and 17!!! Thats some diffrence...

 

i started in 5th grade so however old i was then

 

Most Dr.'s will say that somewhere around 100 lbs. is when girls typically start.

 

yes, it really has more to do with weight. i was chubbier so i got mine in the fifth grade. my tall, thin, willowy friend didn't begin until 9th grade. i've also read studies and had a few black women tell me that many black girls get it even earlier than their white counterparts.

 

I was 11. I don't know about this 100lb theory. My stepdaughter had a genetic disease than kept her thin on top of her practically being anorexic, and she started when she was 10. Her sister has the same genetic disease, and she started at around 14. Everyone's different.

 

ditto on the 100lb theory being more of a generality than a rule. my skinny friend started to menstruate a year befor eme, and ive always been a bit overweight. we were probably 20lbs apart (with me being heavier) when she started. some people are just early bloomers, as my grandma puts it

 

I was 14 1/2, but i was about 86 pounds i think, and i'm only 92 now, and have been for ages. i don't think it's a weight thing it's just a hormonal thingy really.

 

My mom is about the exact same weight and height as me, and she was that way all through high school. We're both right around 5' and 110 pounds. She got her period at 18. I got mine right about when I turned 10. Make of that what you will.

 

I started at 10.
My mom started at 19.

 

we never claimed that the 100lb thing was a rule. in fact, i think we explained it more as being a generality than a fact or anything else. yeah, everyone is different, and among the women i know, the weight thing seems to be what did it.

 

What?

Where did you hear that?

 

i think it depends how you work out your body, my mom was a bball player, baseball, al that and she had hers at 18. i had mine at 14, never gained weight, got sexual, etc etc until i was 16

 

back when i was 11 i was not even 100 lbs but now i'm sure it has to do with weight. Unless research has gone further into depth

 

In all the child development classes that I've taken, I have also heard that African-American girls get their period earlier than white girls, also just start developing earlier in general. Also, it has been seen through time that girls have been getting their periods earlier and earlier - where it might have been totally normal to get it at 18 in the early 1900's, now there are tons of 9 and 10 year olds getting it. What accounts for this?

 

Well, according to http://www.health101.org/art_Milk_and_Girls.htm (and I can't vouch for the validity of that site, I just came across it because I remembered hearing that earlier menstruation had something to do with milk), it has to do with the bulk of hormone-jacked cheese and milk girls today are consuming.

The most relevant point made on that site basically tells the story of Japan, in a published study: Before Americanization and the war, Japan ate relatively little dairy product, and certainly nowhere near the quantity of hormone-fed milk that we do. After the war and with the introduction of tons more milk and cheese, suddenly, the age of menstruation in Japan dropped from 15 to 12.
Again...make of that what you will.