Menarche, Physiology and Psychology

Menarche is a female's first menstruation that takes place in puberty, generally occurring sometime between the ages of ten and eighteen. Menarche indicates that a female's reproductive organs have become functionally active. During menstruation the uterus sheds its lining (endometrium) and discharges an unfertilized egg, along with blood, mucus, and tissue. Whereas puberty is more commonly celebrated, first menstruation may also be marked by specific rituals and or celebrations in particular cultures. Individual responses to menarche are often determined by how well a female understands the changes taking place in her body and by the social codes informing feminine power or women's roles.

The majority of females experience their first menstruation sometime between eleven and fifteen years of age, with the average age being thirteen. However, prolonged emotional stress, poor nutrition, or consistent intensive exercise may delay the onset of the menstrual cycle. Medical studies show, for instance, that female athletes may start menstruating two or three years later than expected due to their high-energy output and low body fat. Often the family history of menarche is the best indicator as to when a female may expect to begin menstruating. For example, if a mother and other matrilineal female relatives reached menarche early, between the ages of nine and eleven, chances are the daughter will also experience an early onset.

Increased body and pubic hair, the start of breasts, fuller hips and a growth spurt or weight gain signal that the body is preparing for menstruation. In addition, the body's increased production of sex hormones trigger body odor changes, sweat gland production, and increase the skin's oil production. These external indicators of the body's preparation for menstruation coincide with internal physical changes of pelvic development in which the uterus and vagina grow and the tract from the uterus opens. The first menstruation may or may not occur simultaneously with ovulation. Typically it can take several months or even up to two years for the menstrual cycle to coincide with ovulation and to become more regular. Therefore, whereas menarche is often an indication that a female's body has reached reproductive maturity, the first few cycles can be anovulatory, or infertile.

How a young female feels about her first period is greatly determined by familial and sociocultural practices and discourses that inform her understanding of the female body and its reproductive functions. Psychological and sociological studies indicate that most females experience a mixture of embarrassment, apprehension, and excitement about menstruation. The anxieties associated with menarche may be lessened or alleviated by candid explanations of what a female might expect physically and by familial and cultural systems that promote menstruation as a positive experience worthy of celebration. It should be noted, however, as Janet Lee and Jennifer Sasser-Coen (1996) demonstrate in their study of menarchal experiences, females who have been sexually abused as children may feel an increased sense of anxiety, associating menarche with the material risks of pregnancy and as a further contamination or violation of their bodies.

Negative experiences with menarche are often linked to feelings such as a "body out of control," being positioned as "different," "potentially sexual" with "physical contact with their father or with boys being curtailed" and with a general "loss of power" related to becoming a woman in a patriarchal social structure (Ussher 2006, p. 22). In most European and North American cultures, such as the United States, menstruation is often understood according to the discourses of medicine or hygiene, compelling menarchal females to view menstruation as something dirty or something to be concealed from others. And whereas such societies tend to position the menstrual body "as an object to be disciplined and managed in privacy," many females state that their first menstruation was a positive experience that they embraced as a "sign of womanhood" and of being "normal" and "fertile" (Ussher 2006, p. 23).

In many cultures menarche signifies the maturation of a girl into a woman and is seen to solidify her sexual difference from males. The marking of this sexual difference may be ceremoniously performed with rituals that require the physical separation of the menarchal female from males or the community. For instance, in certain social groups of South Asia, such as the Hindu Brahmans, the female is separated from the community for twelve days at menarche as part of a ritual to bless her with a fertile life. Some cultures, such as the American Navaho Indians, also ritualize the menarchal moment with the female's seclusion followed by a communal celebration called a kinaalda. It is more common, however, for social groups to hold ceremonies associated more broadly with puberty, such as the Jewish bah mitzvah, that commemorate the transition of a girl into a woman, rather than commemorating menarche in itself.

Most cultures either ritualistically or implicitly segregate the menarchal and/or menstruating female from communal activities. Studies of women and their personal accounts of menstruation indicate that feelings of isolation and separation are quite common across cultures. For instance, one woman conveyed feelings of "public shame" that kept her isolated from her childhood friends, particularly male friends, and from religious rituals in Greece: "Once you being menstruating, that's it, the rules change…. If you are going to church and you have a period you are not allowed to kiss the icons, you are considered dirty" (Koutroulis 2001, p. 197). Psychology and health scholar Jane M. Ussher (2006) states that a female's experience may be positive if menarche is adequately explained and/or celebrated by the family or society. If menstruation is not discussed or celebrated, females often have negative or anxious experiences with the onset of menstruation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dubuis, Jean-Michel. 2007."Puberty: Physiology." Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Division of d'Endocrinologie et Diabetologie ediatriques Hopital de Enfants U.U.G. Geneve. Available from http://gfmer.ch/Endo/Lecures_10/Puberty_%20Physiology.htm.

Koutroulis, G. 2001. "Soiled Identity: Memory Work Narratives of Menstruation." Health. 5(2): 187-205.

Lee, J., and J. Sasser-Coen. 1996. Blood Stories: Menarche and the Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary U.S. Society. New York: Routledge.

Soster-Olmer, Ksenija. 2001. "First Moon Rising: The Making of a Menarche Ritual—A Child's World." Mothering. Nov-Dec (109).

Ussher, Jane M. 2006. Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body. New York: Routledge.

                                  Kristina Banister Quynn