Menarche defines the onset ofmenstruation, which is a normal physiologic process that occurs at regular monthly intervals.

Menarche typically occurs around age 12 but a few years earlier or later is completely normal.

Menarche happens during a time of physical and sexual maturation in adolescence known aspuberty.

A young girl looking at her phone on her bed

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The Onset of Menarche

The onset of menarche is sort of predictable.

It is also a time when girls can become moodier and start to talk back to their parents.

A girls growth spurt typically happens a few months before menarche.

The timing of menarche is important.

This is not normal and needs further medical attention.

This is known as delayed menarche or primary amenorrhea.

Very rarely a girl could have a congenital absence of her uterus a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauer Syndrome.

The onset of menarche marks the beginning of the reproductive years of a womans life.

Actually beginning just before the first menstrual period a girl has had her first ovulation.

It is actually that first ovulation that causes the first period or menarche.

Once a girl ovulates she can get pregnant.

Menarche is a normal process.

It is a point in time that begins a womans reproductive years.

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National Organization for Rare Disorders.Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome.