The arrival of menstruation marks the life of every girl since we are talking about the ‘ passage from girl to woman ‘. For many it is a traumatic step since they face a situation that her body has never experienced before.
Menarche, also known as this, we can say that it is the culmination of a whole series of physical changes that the adolescent experiences in her puberty.
Physical changes in female puberty
- Breast Augmentation: The growth of the breasts can be somewhat painful and they are likely to grow unevenly, which should not cause concern as by the end of development the difference will hardly be noticeable.
- Appearance of body hair: The adolescent begins to have hair on parts of the body that are new to her, such as the armpits and the genital area.
- Changes in the shape of the body: The hips widen and the waist narrows.
- Acne: The skin produces more oil, which becomes the appearance of pimples, especially on the face and upper back.
- All these changes are due to the increase in hormones, the dominant ones are estrogens, responsible for the maturation of the female sexual organs and responsible, among other factors, for menstruation.
- The average age at menarche is 12 years, when the body considers that it is physically ready to be fertilized. However, there are cases in which the first menstruation takes longer to arrive, if it has not appeared before the age of 16, we are dealing with primary amenorrhea. Normally these are very thin girls or those who practice sports and do not have enough body fat for them to develop.
