News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
Evaluation of the menstrual cycle is a viable tool to assess healthy development of teen girls’ menstrual patterns, according to new guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in the November issue of Pediatrics.
“Young patients and their parents often are unsure about what represents normal menstrual patterns, and clinicians also may be unsure about normal ranges for menstrual cycle length and amount and duration of flow through adolescence,” write Jonathan D. Klein, MD, and colleagues from the AAP Committee on Adolescence and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Adolescent Health Care.
“It is important to be able to educate young patients and their parents regarding what to expect of a first period and about the range for normal cycle length of subsequent menses,” the authors point out. “It is equally important for clinicians to have an understanding of bleeding patterns in girls and adolescents, the ability to differentiate between normal and abnormal menstruation, and the skill to know how to evaluate young patients’ conditions appropriately.”
The committee recommends using the menstrual cycle as “an additional vital sign” to help evaluate normal development and exclude pathological conditions.
Characteristics of normal menstrual cycles in young women are median age at menarche of 12.43 years; mean cycle interval of 32.2 days in the first gynecologic year; typical menstrual cycle interval of 21 to 45 days; menstrual flow length of ? 7 days; and menstrual product use of 3 to 6 pads or tampons per day.
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