Variations in the Reporting of Menstrual Histories

Abstract

This investigation examined the accuracy of recall of females to questions concerning ages at memarche, natural and surgical menopause, first use of oral contraceptives and mean menstrual cycle length and variance. A sample of 160 women who had recorded their menstrual and reproductive events as they occurred were administered a questionnaire concerning these events, with responses compared to the original data. For the variables age at menarche, age at natural memopause, age at surgical menopause and age at first use of oral contraceptives, the percentage of women who correctly recalled within a year ranged from 75% to 90%. Recollection of menstrual cycle length and variability by interview was considered unreliable. These findings are encouraging regarding the ability to recall the age when certain menstrual and reproductive events occur, but not for menstrual cycle intervals or patterns. Because these women were well-educated and had once recorded study variables, these results might be considered optimal.

Menstrual and reproductive factors in relation to ovarian cancer risk

“…However, our findings indicated that increasing age at menarche was associated with reduced risk among premenopausal women; similarly, at least two previous studies have found a stronger association between late menarcheal age and reduced risk among younger women (Parazzini et al, 1989;Whittemore, 1993). These findings may reflect the better recall of menarcheal age among younger/premenopausal women, although age at menarche is reported with reasonably good accuracy (Bean et al, 1979). Early menarche is associated with a more rapid onset of ovulatory cycles, and with the tendency to sustain higher levels of luteal phase estradiol and progesterone (Vihko and Apter, 1984).…”

“…Although one previous study suggested an association between heavier menstrual bleeding and increased risk (Purdie et al, 1995), we found no effect for the duration or the heaviness of menstrual bleeding. While our results suggest that cycle characteristics are unrelated to risk, such factors are poorly recalled (Bean et al, 1979;Harlow and Ephross, 1995), and errors of self-report may have attenuated underlying effects. In our data, there was no association between the type of sanitary product used during menstruation and ovarian cancer risk.…”

“…Similar to most previous reports (for example, Hartge et al, 1988;Chen et al, 1992), we found no evidence of an association between age at natural menopause and ovarian cancer risk. The lack of an association between risk and age at natural menopause, which is recalled with reasonable accuracy (Bean et al, 1979), reduces the plausibility of hypotheses involving ovulatory events, or ovulation-associated ovarian inflammation.…”

Women's reproductive health: the role of body mass index in early and adult life

“…For example, Paganini-Hill and Ross 40 reported approximately 90% agreement between interview and medical records for several menstrual and reproductive variables and for height and weight. Age of menarche has also been shown to be recalled accurately, 41 and the validity and reliability of measuring time-to-pregnancy by means of a questionnaire was found to be reasonably good. 30,42 Joffe 31 reported high agreement between questionnaire and self-completed data on time-topregnancy even after recall periods of greater than 14 y, especially among women who had had a live birth.…”

Type and Timing of Menopause and Later Life Mortality among Women in the Iowa Established Populations for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (EPESE) Cohort

“…[27][28][29][30][31][32] However, recalled age at natural menopause has been shown to be less accurate. 27,30,33 Expected trends, such as a younger age at menopause for surgical menopause and greater use of hormone therapy in surgical than natural menopause, suggest that inaccurate reporting concerning type of menopause and age at menopause is not likely to strongly bias our results.…”