Symptom development and timing of menarche: a longitudinal study.

Self-reported somatic complaints among females were studied cross sectionally at age 15 and 43, an longitudinally between these two ages. Specifically, the relationship between symptom development and timing of menarche was considered. The sample consisted of 477 females representing the general Swedish population. All the included symptoms were significantly related to each other at both ages. There was also longitudinal correlational stability for all the studied symptoms. Moreover, symptoms at age 15 were associated with early menarcheal timing. Pattern analyses of the studied symptoms were conducted with roots in person-oriented methodology. These results revealed structural as well as individual stability in patterns of symptom reporting for nearly 30 years. That is, similar configurations of symptoms were found at both ages, and it was the same females who reported being either symptom free or reporting a high symptom load at both ages. At age 15 fewer early maturing females than expected by chance reported being symptom free, whereas more of the late maturing females than expected reported being symptom free. However, there were no effects of menarcheal timing on symptom reporting at age 43.