Biomaterial Database

Does handedness and altitude affect age at menarche? 2005

Zerrin Orbak

Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Erzurum, Turkey. zerrinobak@yahoo.com

Although there is knowledge about earlier mean age at menopause among left-handed postmenopausal women, it is unclear from the literature whether age of menarche is influenced by the prenatal hormonal pattern and cerebral lateralization. We therefore planned to investigate the relation between age of menarche and cerebral lateralization in girls at an altitude of nearly 2000 m. Sixty-two girls, aged between 9.4 and 15.5 years, were interviewed by questionnaire about manual dominance and menarcheal age. All girls were divided into two groups: left-handers (n = 31) and right-handers (n = 31). It was shown that there was a significantly lower average age of menarcheal appearance (12.96 +/- 1.34 years) in the left-handers' compared with the right-handers' (13.72 +/- 1.41 years; p = 0.025). The earliest menarcheal age was 9.4 years in left-handers and 10.1 years in right-handers.A menarcheal age of 13.34 +/- 1.35 years was found for the whole group at an altitude of nearly 2000 m. This data leads us to believe the existence of a link between functional brain asymmetry and menarche. It would appear that the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis is earlier in left-handed females than in right-handed females.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007839	Functional Laterality	Behavioral manifestations of cerebral dominance in which there is preferential use and superior functioning of either the left or the right side, as in the preferred use of the right hand or right foot.	Ambidexterity,Behavioral Laterality,Handedness,Laterality of Motor Control,Mirror Writing,Laterality, Behavioral,Laterality, Functional,Mirror Writings,Motor Control Laterality,Writing, Mirror,Writings, Mirror
D008572	Menarche	The first MENSTRUAL CYCLE marked by the initiation of MENSTRUATION.
D011795	Surveys and Questionnaires	Collections of data obtained from voluntary subjects. The information usually takes the form of answers to questions, or suggestions.	Community Survey,Nonrespondent,Questionnaire,Questionnaires,Respondent,Survey,Survey Method,Survey Methods,Surveys,Baseline Survey,Community Surveys,Methodology, Survey,Nonrespondents,Questionnaire Design,Randomized Response Technique,Repeated Rounds of Survey,Respondents,Survey Methodology,Baseline Surveys,Design, Questionnaire,Designs, Questionnaire,Methods, Survey,Questionnaire Designs,Questionnaires and Surveys,Randomized Response Techniques,Response Technique, Randomized,Response Techniques, Randomized,Survey, Baseline,Survey, Community,Surveys, Baseline,Surveys, Community,Techniques, Randomized Response
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000367	Age Factors	Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.	Age Reporting,Age Factor,Factor, Age,Factors, Age
D000531	Altitude	A vertical distance measured from a known level on the surface of a planet or other celestial body.	Altitudes