Table 1 shows descriptive characteristics of participants in each menarche category. The frequency of early menarche (≤11 years) was 20% (Table 1), with 7% reporting menarche at 10 years of age or younger. The frequency of late menarche (≥14 years) was 24%, with 10% reporting menarche at 15 years of age or older. The trend for the frequency of early menarche across birth decades differed by race/ethnicity (data not shown). Among black and Hispanic women, the percent reporting early menarche increased with birth decade, with more than 35% of women born in 1970-1974 reporting early menarche compared with 27% for those born in 1944-1949. However, we found the opposite pattern for white women or those of other race/ethnicity (Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American, other), with early menarche less common in the most recent birth decade than in earlier decades. Women reporting that their family was poor during childhood had higher frequencies of early menarche than those who reported their family was middle income or well off. As expected from previous literature,1 women who reported they had been heavier or
