Menarche Timing and Cardiometabolic Health Factors

Menarche, the onset of menstrual cycling, signifies a pivotal endocrine transition that shapes lifelong cardiometabolic trajectories. Variations in the age at menarche have been linked to differences in adiposity, glucose metabolism, lipid profiles and vascular health. Earlier menarche tends to coincide with higher body mass index and central fat accumulation, which in turn predisposes to insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and elevated blood pressure. Conversely, later menarche is generally associated with a more favourable cardiometabolic profile, although extreme delays may reflect underlying endocrine or nutritional disorders. Genetic and environmental factors jointly determine pubertal timing, and Mendelian randomisation studies have begun to disentangle causal pathways. Across populations, secular trends towards earlier puberty raise global public health concerns, given the potential for increased burdens of type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular events in ageing cohorts. Integrating observational, genetic and mechanistic evidence is essential for designing targeted prevention strategies that address early pubertal onset and its downstream metabolic consequences.

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Menarche Timing and Cardiometabolic Health Factors publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in menarche timing and cardiometabolic health factors across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Menarche: The onset of a female’s first menstrual period, marking the transition into puberty.
Cardiometabolic health: A composite of risk factors and diseases that bridge cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, including obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and insulin resistance.
Body mass index (BMI): A numerical value of weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres, used to classify underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity.
Waist circumference: A metric of central adiposity, measured around the abdomen, indicative of visceral fat distribution.
Mendelian randomisation (MR): An analytical method using genetic variants as instrumental variables to infer causal relationships between an exposure and an outcome.
Relative risk (RR): A measure comparing the probability of an event occurring in an exposed group with that in an unexposed group.

References

1. The relationship of reproductive factors with adiposity and body shape indices changes overtime: findings from a community-based study. Journal of Translational Medicine (2023).
2. Mendelian randomization study and meta‐analysis exploring the causality of age at menarche and the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic stroke. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics (2023).
3. Association of puberty timing with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine (2020).