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Secular Trends of Reproductive Indices in Chuvashian Women

  • Published:
International Journal of Anthropology

Abstract

In the present cross-sectional study of the Chuvashian rural population, we examined the secular trends of age at menarche, the age at menopause, the reproductive period, and the age of the first marriage of Chuvashian women. The cohort included 745 women aged 18–90 years; age at menarche (N = 653) ranging from 10 to 24 years (mean 15.42 ± 2.11). Data regarding menopausal age was obtained from 316 women born between 1920 and 1950 (mean 48.5 ± 4.6). Statistical analyses included the maximum likelihood estimation and a Whiskers plot. Women born during the second through the fourth decade of the 20th century showed increasing mean values of age at menarche from 15.4 (second decade) up to 16.5 (fourth decade) and after that a decrease of the mean values to 14.0 (ninth decade). The mean values of menopausal age increased from 47.0 (women born from 1920 to 1925) to 49.3 (born from 1945 to 1950). Age at first marriage showed a trend of decreasing age. Our study demonstrated secular trends of age at menarche in Chuvashian women who had matured after World War II and also confirmed secular trends of increased age at menopause and the duration of the reproductive period. Women, whose maturation was during or immediately after World War II, showed a higher age at menarche and a higher dispersion of age at menopause.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy, The Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Leonid Kalichman

  2. Human Population Biology Research Unit, Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Ida Malkin & Eugene Kobyliansky

  3. Lilian and Marcel Pollak Chair of Biological Anthropology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Kobyliansky

Authors
  1. Leonid Kalichman
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  2. Ida Malkin
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  3. Eugene Kobyliansky
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Correspondence to Eugene Kobyliansky.

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Kalichman, L., Malkin, I. & Kobyliansky, E. Secular Trends of Reproductive Indices in Chuvashian Women. Intl Jnl Anthropology 21, 253–263 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11599-007-9029-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11599-007-9029-2

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