Teenage sex

BMJ 1996;312:1419 (1 June)

Letters

Teenage sex

Trend towards earlier menarche stopped 30 years ago

EDITOR,--In her editorial on teenage sex Sue Stuart-Smith givesthe impression that there is still a trend towards earlier menarche.¹Roberts and I have long shown that that trend has stopped (itstopped in 1965) and that there now seems to be a reverse trend.²³ ⁴ Thus the trend towards earlier menarche, when it existed,is unlikely to have been an important factor in the decreasein the age at first sexual intercourse in girls, since it amountedto only three to four months per decade; thus even if it hadcontinued over the past 30 years it would have amounted to atmost one year. This would hardly account for Stuart-Smith'squoted change in the incidence of first sexual intercourse belowthe age of 16 from 1% in women over 55 in 1994 to the present20% or so in teenage girls.