The influence of the menarche on the extent of selected somatic characteristics of Warsaw girls

: The objective of this work was to establish whether the higher level of physical development observed in 13-year old girls as compared with their coevals of 15 years earlier, was due to the earlier maturing of the former, hence to a greater share of menstruating girls in that group. A comparison of the levels of development of selected somatic characteristics and the distribution of frequency of body height in the menstruating and non-menstruating groups, indicates that the secular trend is independent of menarche.