Association between factors related to the pregnancy, neonatal period, and later complications (especially asthma) and menarcheal age in a sample of Lebanese girls

Abstract

Background Studies about the majority of the factors that may potentially influence the pubertal timing and menarche were controversial. The objective was to evaluate the association between factors related to the pregnancy, neonatal period, and the complications that may happen later in life and the menarcheal age in a sample of Lebanese girls admitted or not to the NICU at birth. Our secondary objective was to try to find, for the first time in literature, a correlation between respiratory distress at birth and the need of oxygen therapy with the age of the first menses in these girls. Methods It is a cross-sectional retrospective study, conducted between January and March 2019. Our sample included all the 2474 girls born in Notre-Dame-de-Secours hospital, between 2000 and 2005; the sample consisted of 297 girls (97 girls admitted to the NICU and 200 randomly chosen to participate in our study with a ratio of 1:2 (1 girl admitted to the NICU vs 2 girls born in the nursery). Results Asthma later in life was significantly associated with lower age at menarche in girls, whereas a higher mother’s age at menarche and a higher gestational age were significantly associated with higher age at menarche in girls. When taking each cause of NICU admission as an independent variable, showed that a higher mother’s age at menarche was significantly associated with higher age at menarche in girls, whereas a higher number of days of phototherapy, a preeclampsia in the mother during pregnancy and asthma later in life in the girl were significantly associated with a lower age at menarche in girls. Conclusion The timing of menarche seems to be associated with many factors in Lebanese girls that should not be disregarded by physicians.

Cohort‐based analysis of maternal age at menarche in relation to young adult offspring anthropometric and metabolic parameters

“…T A B L E 2 Estimated crude and adjusted odds ratios for the anthropometric measures overweight/obesity, tall stature and abdominal obesity in youth offspring, as predicted by maternal age at menarche (MAM) | 299 demonstrating a transgenerational effect of maternal early onset of puberty with offspring height and in contrast to a study in China which did not find a significant association. 26 Our sensitivity analysis by sex showed significant association only for boys which is consistent with a study in China 27 performed on adolescents (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) years old) and in contrast to other previous studies who did not find a sex-specific association between MAM and offspring height. 15,19,26 This difference may be attributed to the smaller sample size in our study providing lower statistical power.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that early MAM is associated with earlier puberty timing in offspring. 28 Early age of menarche in girls is associated with short stature 16,[29][30][31] and it is possible that it may attenuate the intergenerational impact of early MAM in postpuberty girls regarding growth to a tall stature.…”

“…Relations between anthropometric changes in child offspring and maternal age at menarche (MAM) have been observed previously 1,13–20 . These studies are restricted to children before puberty; thus, there is a lack of research on relationships of maternal menarche age and adult offspring outcomes.…”

“…Relations between anthropometric changes in child offspring and maternal age at menarche (MAM) have been observed previously. 1,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] These studies are restricted to children before puberty; thus, there is a lack of research on relationships of maternal menarche age and adult offspring outcomes. In Austria, for instance, younger maternal menarcheal age has been reported to be related to reduced weight and size in the offspring at birth.…”