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Science 24 July 1970:
Vol. 169. no. 3943, pp. 397 - 399
DOI: 10.1126/science.169.3943.397
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Articles

Height and Weight at Menarche and a Hypothesis of Critical Body Weights and Adolescent Events

Rose E. Frisch 1 and Roger Revelle 1

1 Harvard Center for Population Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Height and weight at menarche were found for each subject in three longitudinal growth studies. Early and late maturing girls have menarche at the same mean weight, but late maturers are taller at menarche. Two other major events of adolescence, initiation of the weight growth spurt and maximum rate of weight gain, also occur at an invariant mean weight. The hypothesis is proposed that a critical body weight may trigger each of these adolescent events. Such an interaction would explain the secular trend to an earlier menarche.


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