Abstract:
Menarche and menopause constitute the two ends of women's reproductive life. The
interval between the two events constitute a woman's reproductive period. There are
postulations that the age at menarche determines the age at menopause of a woman. This
study was carried out to determine if there was any relat ionship between the age at menarche and the age at menopause among the women of Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, and to elucidate the factors associated with menarche and/or menopause among the women. The study population consisted of post-menopausal women between the ages of 48 years and 65 years . It was a cross-sectional descriptive. Data was collected using interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaires administered to respondents at their homes. Multistage sampling method was employed in the p ocess of data collection. Four hundred and two respondents were recruited by first dividing the Local Government Area into four clusters, then randomly choosing two villages from each cluster, and finally systematically choosing households in the villages for interviewing of eligible and willing respondents. Data collected was analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS-17). Average age of the women that participated in the study was 57.04 (SD; 4.51 ) years. Their average age at menarche was 12.89 (SD; 1.65) years with a median age of 13 years. Average age at menopause was 49.54 years (SO; 1.4) and a median age of 50 years. Different factors affected the age at menarche and the age at menopause. Socio-economic factors which, enhance the nutritional status of the child thereby enhancing body fat and physical growth of the child were associated with early menarche. Such factors included high educational level of father, fathers' occupation being professional; few number of siblings, and being an only
or a last daughter. Conditions which depleted body fat such as involvement in school sports and child labour were associated with late menarche. Early menopause was associated with age of respondent at the birth of first baby, z, and use of contraceptives. High educational status and occupation being professional were associated with late menopause . Heredity, evidenced by the presence of relations who had either menopause or menarche at the same age as the respondent was the only factor associated with both events .
