Menarcheal age and spontaneous abortion: Further evidence for a connection.

This paper examines the association between menarcheal age and risk of spontaneous abortion with a data set collected in Limon, Costa Rica. The Limonense sample differs from those previously reported in terms of age, socioeconomic and ethnic background. Thus, the sample is excellent to test whether menarcheal age and risk of miscarriage are associated in a nonindustrialized group as they appear to be in industrialized samples. Females who experienced one or more miscarriages have a significantly earlier age at first menses than those who did not. The results also indicate that a possible reason for this association is that early maturers tend to experience first pregnancy at an earlier age than do late maturers.