Age at menarche in Nigerian athletes.

The subjects of the study were 418 highly successful female athletes and 512 female non-athletes drawn from all over Nigeria. Recall procedures were used to ascertain the age at menarche. The study gave the following results: In general, over-all mean menarcheal age of athletes (14.13 years) was significantly higher (p less than .05) than that of non-athletes (13.57 years). Menarche was significantly (p less than .05) delayed (14.41 years) in those athletes (n = 272) who started physical activities before the onset of menstruation. The mean menarcheal age of non-athletes i.e. general population was significantly lower (p less than .05) than that established thirty years ago in Nigerian women.