Comparative Study of Diabetic Women with Either Early or Late Menarchial Age

From 217 diabetic women over thirty-nine years of age attending a diabetes clinic, there were selected for study twenty-seven who had had an early (< 12 yrs.), and thirty-seven who had had a late (> 16 yrs.) menarche. Patients in both groups were obese, but those in the former were much more so than in the latter (85.4 kg. vs. 75.4 kg.; 156 cm. vs. 158 cm.). Hypertension and hypertensive vascular complications were more prevalent in the first group, while ketoacidosis and retinal microaneurysms were almost absent. The group with late menarche developed retinal microaneurysms much more rapidly than the other group and perhaps even than the general population of the clinic.