Age at Menarche and Menopause Among Saharia Women –A Primitive Tribe of Madhya Pradesh

ABSTRACT In the present paper, an attempt has been made to study the age at menarche and menopause of the women among Saharia – a primitive tribe of Madhya Pradesh. In women life, menarche and menopause are the significant and inevitable events which indicate a particular adult stage of first periodical flow of blood from womb and ceases to ovulate and menstruate respectively in all healthy women. As primitive tribe, Saharia are positioned under socio-economically backward condition. Mean age at menarche and menopause of women are varied in regarding the different background factors like – nutritional status, family size, medical facility, genetic factor, environment, education, birth rank, living standard, socio-economic condition, etc. In comparison with various studies, mean menarcheal and menopausal age of Saharia women have been found to be high (13.5 ± 0.84 years) and low 44.6 ± 1.17 years) respectively. Malnutrition, paucity of clinical facility, harsh environment, low socio-economic status, etc. may be assessed as the attributed reasons of high mean age at menarche as well as low mean age at menopause of Saharia women