Body composition at menarche: The Frisch-Revelle hypothesis revisited
Crawford, J.D.; Osler, D.C.
Pediatrics 56(3): 449-458
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-4005 PMID: 1161402 Document Number: 88939
Frisch and Revelle found menarche in the USA to be closely centred on a weight of 47.8 kg and an associated fall of basal metabolic rate. Later the association was thought by the present writers to be with a particular body composition in terms of water and fat content. These first revisions came from study of menarche in mentally retarded and in bedridden girls. The present report deals with studies and records of other abnormal groups: girls unusually tall for age; precocious subjects in whom menarche occurred before age 10; 11 precocious patients who were also hypothyroid; 18 subjects with gonadal dysgenesis in whom a 45X karyotype was found, and 14 girls aged between 4.7 and 7.5 years with weight at least 25% in excess of normal. The data recorded, age, weight, height, body water and body fat, and statistical comparisons are tabulated and discussed, group by group. In some of the girls estimates were made of some sex hormones, or use was made of recorded hormone data. The conclusion is that menarche appears to require at least approximation to a characteristic body composition in terms of water and fat. Further, more discriminating work is required to define the details and explain the relations to hormone action.