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Because tradeoffs between growth and reproduction can result in earlier ages at menarche and lower limb length, we assess menarcheal age between 1120 and 1540\u2009CE to better understand the health of medieval adolescent females before and after the plague.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our sample comprises 74 adolescent females from St. Mary Spital, London (1120\u20101540\u2009CE) within the age range during which menarche occurs (10\u201025\u2009years). They were assessed as being pre\u2010 or post\u2010menarcheal and divided into three groups: Early Pre\u2010Black Death (n = 13), Late Pre\u2010Black Death (n = 38), and Post\u2010Black Death (n = 23). Changes in the ages of pre\u2010 and post\u2010menarcheal females were assessed using Mann\u2010Whitney tests.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The average age of post\u2010menarcheal females increased from the Early\u2010 to Late Pre\u2010Black Death periods and declined after the Black Death.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>Short stature can reflect unfavorable growth environments, while younger menarcheal age indicates improved living conditions. The paradoxical pattern of female, but not male, stature reduction after the Black Death might reflect the association of early menarche with lower limb length and signal that adolescent females experienced improved health conditions after the epidemic. Our focus on pre\u2010 and post\u2010menarche within a limited age span provides a novel approach for inferring average ages of menarche over time. Pathways to skeletal development and reproductive investment are part of an integrated system, providing a bridge between life history research in bioarchaeology and human biology.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1002\/ajhb.23439","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]],"date-time":"2020-06-22T03:55:01Z","timestamp":1592798101000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["Medieval menarche: Changes in pubertal timing before and after the Black Death"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"33","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0754-8485","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sharon N.","family":"DeWitte","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anthropology University of South Carolina Columbia South Carolina USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6224-0278","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mary","family":"Lewis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Archaeology University of Reading Reading England UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","first-page":"51","article-title":"Estimating age at death from thoracic and lumbar vertebral ring epiphyseal union data","volume":"123","author":"Albert A. 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