Early age at menarche and risk of postpartum hemorrhage: a retrospective study in Chinese women

Abstract

Objective

The objective of this study is to investigate whether early age at menarche is associated with increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage among Chinese women.

Materials and methods

Clinical data from 6,383 Chinese women who gave birth to live singleton infants at The First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College between October 2016 and October 2019 were extracted from the electronic medical records system. Patients were categorized into four groups according to their age at menarche (≤12, 13, 14 and ≥15 years). Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for postpartum hemorrhage for the different menarche age groups.

Results

After controlling for potential confounders, women with menarche at an early age (≤12 years) had a significantly higher risk of developing postpartum hemorrhage than women with an age at menarche of 13 years, and the ORs (95% CIs) for postpartum hemorrhage across the menarche age categories (≤12, 13, 14 and ≥15 years) were 1.27 (1.02–1.81), 1.00 (reference), 0.95 (0.61–1.57), and 0.91 (0.51–1.58), respectively. Moreover, age at menarche was inversely associated with the risk of postpartum hemorrhage after adjustment for all relevant confounding factors, and the OR (95% CI) for postpartum hemorrhage per year of increasing in the age at menarche was 0.93 (0.74–0.99).

Conclusion

Early age at menarche was associated with a significantly increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage after adjustment for known confounding factors. This finding could help obstetricians and midwives to identify pregnant women at higher risk of developing postpartum hemorrhage, and allow early preventative strategies to be implemented.

Keywords:

• Age at menarche
• postpartum hemorrhage
• risk factors

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grant from the PhD Programs Foundation of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College. We thank Dr Wang Dan for statistical analysis evaluation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Programmes Foundation of Chengdu Medical College (CYFY-GQ24) funded this study.