| Abstract: | We surveyed the menstrual patterns of131,410 Chinese women over 9 years old in 29provinces, municipalities and autonomous re'-gions. 129,226 (98.34'/o) had menstruaited. Theirage at menarche ranged from 9 t0 21 yea.rs andaveraged 15. Menarche occurred one yearla.ter on the average in rural than in urbanwomen. The interval between menarche andsecond menstruation averaged 3;5 days, and anormal menstrual cycle usua.lly was establishedwithin six months.. The length of menstrualcycle averaged 31 days and wa.s related to suchfacitors as health status, weather, nutrition,psychiatric factors and physical labor. Men-strual periods ranged from l t0 10 days andaveraged 5 days. On the average, menopausebegan at age 49.5 in urban women and twoyears earlier in rural womem The age of meno-pause differed slightly between regions. Theduration of climaoteric symptoms aft.er olr beforemenopause averaged 2 years and varied amongregions; but about 50i70 0f women had no cli-m.acteric symptoms or dysmenorrhea. In gene-ral, the menstrual patterns of minority womenwere similar to those of Han women., However,in Korean women, the age at mena.rche a.veraged16h56 years, and that at menopause averaged47.46 years. In Tibet.an women, t.he age atmena.rche averaged 16.84yea.rs and dura.tion ofmenstrual flow was 3 to4 days. |
