Is it normal for a 10-year-old girl to have her period?

As people's living conditions are getting better and better and nutrients are becoming more abundant, many children are experiencing precocious puberty. Generally, girls will have their first menstruation between the ages of 12 and 14. However, if your child has his or her period at the age of ten, this is not normal and you need to go to the hospital for a check-up to see if it will affect your health. So, is it normal for girls to start menstruating at the age of ten?

The age of menarche in girls generally fluctuates between 10 and 16 years old, with most cases occurring around 13 to 14 years old. But some girls begin sexual development very early, and their first menstruation occurs at the age of 8 to 10. According to a large number of surveys we conducted in Chengdu, this type of girls accounts for about 1%. When faced with such situations, most parents feel surprised, fearing that their children are not developing normally or have some disease; the children themselves are also prone to panic and do not understand the physiological phenomena occurring at such a young age. At this moment, the care and correct guidance of parents and teachers will help eliminate the girl's emotional tension.

This apparent early onset of menarche is due to individual differences in children's development and has inherent characteristics when observed as a whole. Generally, girls who start menstruation early will enter puberty earlier. While other people experience a sudden growth in height at the age of 11 to 12, these girls grow greatly in height at the age of 8 or 9 (7 to 8 cm per year) and weigh nearly 40 kg. Normal girls begin to develop breasts around the age of 11, but this type of girls begin to develop breasts at the age of 9 to 10.

Another important feature is that the bone age of girls who have their first menstruation at the age of 9 to 10 years old is significantly older than their calendar age. For example, some girls started menstruating at the age of 9.5, and their bone age was already 13.3 years old at that time. We conducted detailed physical examinations on more than 60 girls who had their first menstruation before the age of 11. The results showed that the bone age of their wrist bones was over 12 years old, and the average bone age was 2.66 years higher than the calendar age. This is because bone development and sex development are both regulated by endocrine hormones, and the two are closely related. Bone age can be determined by taking an X-ray of the wrist bones.

In addition, the psychological development of most girls with physiologically early menarche is also synchronized with this. Their self-control, ability to adapt to the external environment, and ability to regulate emotions are better than those of their peers.

The coordination and consistency of the physical, skeletal, psychological and other developmental aspects mentioned above is very helpful in distinguishing physiological and pathological phenomena. Pathological early menarche is only a manifestation of certain diseases or serious endocrine disorders, and it is always accompanied by other clinical symptoms or signs. As long as the development process is carefully observed and certain indicators are thoroughly tested, the cause of the disease can eventually be determined.